When black holes consume matter, they can create powerful jets of ionized material that stream away from the black hole at nearly the speed of light. Using NRAO’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers have captured images of one such jet coming from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87, revealing a complex helical structure.
Writing and narration provided by Phil Plait @SYFY
Discover more about the jets of M87 from the original press release:
https://public.nrao.edu/news/helix-structure-in-jet/