An international team led by Laval University Ph.D. student Camille Poitras has produced the sharpest X-ray view ever of the jet launched by the supermassive black hole in M87. The work combines observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory taken between 2012 and 2025 with advanced image-processing techniques.
This marks a leap in resolving power for studying how such jets evolve over time. M87's jet—a stream of particles traveling near the speed of light—has been a target for decades, but previous X-ray studies lacked the clarity to track fine-scale changes.
The researchers tracked structural shifts in the jet across the 13-year observation window. The new processing methods allowed them to isolate features that had previously blended together, offering a clearer timeline of how the jet's knots and filaments evolve.
These findings could refine models of how supermassive black holes channel energy into their surroundings. The jet's behavior influences star formation and galaxy evolution, making M87 a critical laboratory for understanding these cosmic engines.
Poitras noted the significance of combining long-baseline data with modern algorithms. "It's like watching a time-lapse movie of a cosmic particle accelerator," she said, though the team cautions that interpretation of some features remains uncertain.