NASA/ESA, Jeffrey Kenney (Yale University), Elizabeth Yale (Yale University)
A supermassive black hole residing in the hub of the nearby galaxy called NGC 4438. Known as a peculiar galaxy because of its unusual shape, NGC 4438 is in the Virgo Cluster, 50 million light-years from Earth.
European Space Agency, NASA and Felix Mirabel (the French Atomic Energy Commission & the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)
Artist's impression shows a black hole and its yellow companion star being sent out on a long journey through the Milky Way galaxy by the explosive kick of a supernova.
The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and NASA/ESA
Lying at the center of galaxy M87, a giant black hole has swallowed up matter equal to 2 billion times our Sun's mass. M87 is 50 million light-years from Earth.
NASA/ESA
The black hole-powered core of a nearby active galaxy 13 million light-years away in the southern constellation Circinus.
European Space Agency, NASA, Felix Mirabel and the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina
GRO J1655-40 (in blue) is the second so-called 'microquasar' discovered in our Galaxy. Microquasars are black holes of about the same mass as a star.
AURA/STScI/NASA/ESA
NGC 7742, a spiral galaxy, known also as a Seyfert 2 active galaxy, a type of galaxy that is probably powered by a black hole residing in its core.
NASA/ESA, NRAO/AUI/NSF and W. Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
A close-up of the spiral galaxy called 0313-192. Astronomers believe that jets of sub-atomic particles originate at the cores of galaxies, where supermassive black holes provide the gravitational energy to accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light.
Hubble Space Telescope/NASA/ESA.
The jet originating from the center of M87 in this image comes from an active galactic nucleus that may contain a supermassive black hole.
Roeland P. van der Marel (STScI), Frank C. van den Bosch (Univ. of Washington), and NASA/ESA.
Disk around a Black Hole in Galaxy NGC 7052
European Space Agency and Wolfram Freudling
Finding the ashes of the first stars [artist's impression]