Event Horizon Telescope collaboration finds M87's bright crescent shifting
Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, with support from NASA, took a fresh look at M87 using multiple years of observations, the one with the glowing orange ring, and found that it is not as calm as it seemed.
Turns out, the bright crescent in that ring actually shifts over time, revealing a super active and ever-changing environment around this cosmic giant.
Scientists animate M87 plasma near-light-speed
By combining years of radio telescope data, scientists created an animation showing how plasma swirls around the black hole at nearly the speed of light.
While the size of the ring stays steady, its brightest spot keeps moving thanks to all that superheated gas and powerful magnetic fields constantly reshaping things, just like Einstein's theories predicted.
Basically, that iconic image was just one wild moment in a much messier story.