CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -M87, in full Messier 87, also called Virgo A or NGC4486, giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo whose nucleus contains a black hole, the first ever to be directly imaged. M87 is the most powerful known source of radio energy among the thousands of galactic systems constituting the so-called Virgo Cluster .

Detailed explanation-2: -M87 is 55 million light-years away in the Virgo Galaxy cluster and has a mass about 6.5 billion times that of our sun. The bright circle of gas and dust that collects and swirls around it is known as an accretion disk. It takes many days to orbit around this gargantuan object.

Detailed explanation-3: -Known as Sagittarius A* (SgrA* for short), this region is believed to host a supermassive black hole of about 4 million times the solar mass. There have been other possibilities put forth by researchers in this context, but that of a supermassive black hole is the most likely one.

Detailed explanation-4: -M87 is near a high declination limit of the Virgo constellation, abutting Coma Berenices. It lies along the line between the stars Epsilon Virginis and Denebola (Beta Leonis).

Detailed explanation-5: -The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has now produced images of two supermassive black holes: the one in the center of a galaxy called M87 and the one at the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.