- 3110 - BLACKHOLE - first picture. The first image of a blackhole's magnetic fields is of Galaxy M87's supermassive blackhole in polarized light. The lines mark the orientation of polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the shadow of the blackhole.
---------------------- 3110 - BLACKHOLE - first picture
- The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration reveal how the blackhole, 55 million light-years away, appears in polarized light. The image marks the first time astronomers have captured and mapped polarization, a sign of magnetic fields, so close to the edge of a blackhole.
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- Scientists still don't understand how magnetic fields, areas where magnetism affects how matter moves, influence blackhole activity. Do they help direct matter into the hungry mouths of black holes? Can they explain the mysterious jets of energy that extend out of the galaxy's core?
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- The EHT collaboration has been studying the supermassive object at the heart of M87 for well over a decade. In April 2019, the team's hard work paid off when they revealed the very first image of a blackhole. Since then, the scientists have delved deeper into the data, discovering that a significant fraction of the light around the M87 blackhole is polarized.
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- Light becomes polarized when it goes through certain filters, like the lenses of polarized sunglasses, or when it is emitted in hot regions of space that are magnetized. In the same way polarized sunglasses help us see better by reducing reflections and glare from bright surfaces, astronomers can sharpen their view of the blackhole by looking at how light originating from there is polarized.
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- Polarization allows astronomers to map the magnetic field lines present around the inner edge of the blackhole.
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- These new polarized observations of the M87 black hole are key to explaining how the galaxy is able to launch energetic jets from its core. One of M87's most mysterious features is the bright jet of matter and energy that emerges from its core and extends at least 100,000 light years away.
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- Most matter lying close to the edge of a blackhole falls in. However, some of the surrounding particles escape moments before capture and are blown far out into space in the form of these jets.
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- Now, March, 2021, with the new image of the blackhole in polarized light, the team has looked directly into the region just outside the black hole where this interplay between inflowing and ejected matter occurs.
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- The observations provide new information about the structure of the magnetic fields just outside the blackhole, revealing that only theoretical models featuring strongly magnetized gas can explain what astronomers are seeing at the event horizon.
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- Magnetic fields are theorized to connect blackholes to the hot plasma surrounding them. Understanding the structure of these fields is the first step in understanding how energy can be extracted from spinning blackholes to produce powerful jets.
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- To observe the heart of the M87 galaxy, the EHT collaboration linked eight telescopes around the world, including the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Submillimeter Array, to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope. The impressive resolution obtained with the EHT is equivalent to that needed to image a credit card on the surface of the Moon.
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- This unprecedented resolving power allowed the team to directly observe the blackhole with polarized light, revealing the presence of a structured magnetic field near the event horizon. As the EHT continues to grow, future observations will refine the picture and allow astronomers to study how the magnetic field structure change over time.
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- The EHT collaboration involves more than 300 researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. The international collaboration is working to capture the most detailed blackhole images ever obtained by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope.
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- Supported by considerable international investment, the EHT links existing telescopes using novel systems creating a fundamentally new instrument with the highest angular resolving power that has yet been achieved.
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- The individual telescopes involved are: ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-meter Telescope, the IRAM NOEMA Observatory, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, the Large Millimeter Telescope, the Submillimeter Array, the Submillimeter Telescope, the South Pole Telescope, the Kitt Peak Telescope and the Greenland Telescope.
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- March 28, 2021 3110
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--------------------- --- Sunday, March 28, 2021 ---------------------------
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