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Black Hole Wind

Photo: Hot gas blowing from a black hole

A composite x-ray/optical image of the active NGC 1068 galaxy reveals an enormous plume of hot gas emanating from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center. Scientists think the shape and speed of the plume, which moves at about 1 million miles an hour (1.6 million kilometers an hour), are caused by the funneling effect of a doughnut-shaped ring of cooler gas and dust that surrounds the black hole.

Photograph courtesy NASA/CXC/MIT/UCSB/P. Ogle et al./STScI/A. Capetti et al.