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What Would YOUR Galaxy Look Like?

Live Chat June 30th, 2021

Make your own images of the amazing galaxy M87— host to a supermassive black hole — using data from NASA’s space telescopes or ground based telescopes. Try these challenges and your entry could be selected as a standout for recognition from NASA scientists!

Visit: NASA's Astrophoto Challenges

Biographies of Show Participants

PHIL LAMARR (Host)

A Los Angeles native, Phil is an alumnus of Yale University and The Groundlings Theater and perhaps is best known as one of the original cast members of MAD TV, as “Hermes” on FUTURAMA,  as "Marvin" in PULP FICTION, “Green Lantern” on JUSTICE LEAGUE and as the voice of SAMURAI JACK. For over 30 years Phil has thrilled audiences with his work on camera and behind the microphone on TV shows such as STATIC SHOCK, FAMILY GUY, STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, the CW’s THE FLASH & SUPERGIRL, GET SHORTY, LUCIFER and VEEP; feature films like MADAGASCAR 2, INCREDIBLES 2, and THE LION KING (2019) and video games including FORTNITE, SHADOW OF MORDOR, and the INJUSTICE, METAL GEAR SOLID, and the MORTAL KOMBAT series.

RUTUPARNA DAS (Astronomer)

Rutuparna Das is an astrophysicist and science communicator who spends her time learning about the universe and sharing its wonders with everyone around her.  After going to undergrad at MIT, she completed her PhD at the University of Michigan, where she worked on weighing clusters of galaxies and figuring out what the cosmos is made of.  She’s now at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, spreading the joys of space through NASA’s Universe of Learning, and continuing her research into the composition of the universe.  When she’s not staring at the sky, she enjoys reading, crafting crazy desserts, taking an inordinate number of nature photos, and writing (sometimes silly) poetry about the cosmos.

EILEEN MEYER (Astronomer)

Eileen Meyer is originally from the very starry-night-sky state of Kansas. She received her B.S. degree in Astrophysics in 2005 and PhD in Physics in 2012, both from Rice University. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute for three years, working primarily with the Hubble Space Telescope before joining the faculty of UMBC in Baltimore, MD where she is now an as associate professor of physics. Her research team is particularly interested in understanding the physics of jets of extremely hot gas which originate near super-massive black holes.

Explore Images of the M87 Galaxy

Press Releases About the M87 Black Hole

Astronomers Capture the First Image of a Black Hole (10 April 2019) • EHT Release • ESO Release

Telescopes Unite in Unprecedented Observations of Famous Black Hole (14 April 2021) • NASA Release

A Black Hole Primer • Chandra Feature

Black Hole Stories

These interactive Viewspace pages and videos allow you to investigate the huge black holes found at the centers of galaxies.

M87 (video)

See how the jet shooting from the center of M87 changes over time.

The Milky Way/Sagittarius A* (interactive)

What kind of black hole lies at the center of our own galaxy and how do we know it is there?

Centarus A Galaxy (interactive)

See the effects of a supermassive black hole in our neighbor galaxy Centarus A.

 

Black Hole Activities

These PDFs outline black hole themed activities for educators and informal learning facilitators.

Play a Game of "Battleship" with a Black Hole

Black Hole Themed Electronics Activity

 

Try Out NASA's Astrophoto Challenges

Archive of Previous Astrophoto Challenges