The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration , the chemical group that take the historicfirst - ever image of a dim hole , is back with a new stunning smuggled maw image . This one shows the magnetised field of operations twirling around the supermassive shameful pickle at the heart of our coltsfoot , Sagittarius A * .
Black hole are tough to image because they swallow anything that comes close to them , even light , due to their vastly powerful gravitation . However , that does n’t mean they are unseeable . The black hole itself ca n’t be seen , but the swirling issue around the event horizon ’s edge glows brilliantly enough to be visualize . This new simulacrum take advantage of a characteristic of light call polarization , uncover the powerful magnetic field that twirl around the enormous opprobrious hole .
“ What we ’re figure now is that there are stiff , twisted , and organize magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way coltsfoot , ” said Sara Issaoun , co - wind of the project at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian , in astatement . The image enabled the researcher to compare this blackened hole , also known as Sgr A * , to the celebrated first image black hole , M87 * .
“ Along with Sgr A * having a strikingly similar polarization social organisation to that seen in the much larger and more knock-down M87 * black jam , we ’ve memorise that strong and tell magnetised fields are critical to how inglorious holes interact with the petrol and matter around them , ” Issaoun said .
The polarization of visible light advert to the orientation in which the waves fluctuate . When light is polarized , it is vibrate in a particular direction , and though it looks the same as steady light to human center , investigator can canvass this polarized light to learn about the orientation of magnetic field .
“ By imaging polarize luminosity from hot glowing gas near black holes , we are directly generalise the structure and military posture of the magnetic field that thread the stream of gas and matter that the black hole feed on and ejects , ” explicate project atomic number 27 - lead Angelo Ricarte . “ Polarized light teaches us a great deal more about the astrophysics , the property of the gas , and mechanism that take place as a black hole feed . ”
The researchers used a like technique toexamine the magnetized fields of M87*in 2021 , and now that they have a similar persona of Sagittarius A * , they can equate the two . A spectacular finding is that even though Sagittarius A * is more than a thousand times smaller than M87 * , the two have outstandingly similar magnetic fields .
“ The fact that the magnetic theater construction of M87 * is so similar to that of Sgr A * is important because it suggests that the physical processes that govern how a black hole feeds and set up a jet might be world-wide among supermassive black holes , despite difference of opinion in mass , size , and palisade environment , ” enjoin EHT Deputy Project Scientist Mariafelicia De Laurentis . “ This resultant provide us to refine our theoretic models and simulation , meliorate our reason of how topic is act upon near the event horizon of a black hole . ”
