A dense whirling mass orbiting what almost certainly is a black hole of truly Brobdingnagian proportions has been discovered at the heart of an active galaxy some 21 million light years from Earth.
Researchers using the Very Large Array have discovered that a small, powerful object in our own cosmic neighborhood is shooting out material at nearly the speed of light — a feat previously known to be performed only by the massive cores of entire galaxies.
An original and comprehensive data set potentially full of scientific surprises now is available to astronomers, students and the public through the information superhighway.
