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The vast abyss lies 47 million light years from Earth – shrouded by a ring of cosmic dust. Incredible jets of energy fuel the spectacular city of stars, called Messier 77. Known as a Type II Seyfert galaxy, it is particularly bright at infrared wavelengths.
The black hole, formed by the collapse of a giant star, is 15 million times bigger than our sun.
Its event horizon – from which not even light can escape – is 54 million miles across. The observations could help explain the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A.
An international team of astronomers used the Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile with a scanner removing stars in pics to show the surroundings.
Professor Walter Jaffe, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, said: “The images detail the changes in temperature and absorption of the dust clouds around the black hole.”
Violeta Gamez Rosas, a PhD candidate at Leiden, added: “Our results could help us understand the history of the Milky Way, whose black hole at its centre may have been active in the past.”
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