2024-03-29 03:52:00
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The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is strikingly similar in images to the larger black hole M87*. This raises an important question.
Frankfurt – Black holes are huge and extremely mysterious celestial bodies – they swallow everything that comes too close to them and don’t let anything out. Not even light – which is why you can’t see black holes themselves. A few years ago, however, a collaboration of researchers and telescopes succeeded in recording the immediate surroundings of two black holes – including their “shadows”. The images of the black hole M87* at the center of the galaxy M87 and the black hole Sgr A* at the center of the Milky Way went around the world.
The images of the two black holes look strikingly similar, even though Sgr A* is more than a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87*. This raised questions among some researchers: Are the two black holes similar in other respects? That was the central question that led a research team to once again look into the center of the Milky Way – but this time in polarized light.
A new look at the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, this time in polarized light that reveals magnetic fields. The lines shown mark the orientation of the polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the black hole’s shadow. © EHT Collaboration
Polarized light can hardly be distinguished from normal light by the human eye. Light is so called when it oscillates in a preferred orientation. In the plasma around black holes, researchers can better recognize the processes in polarized light and map magnetic field lines. The research team from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) did exactly that and has now published a new image of the black hole Sgr A*.
Images of black hole at center of Milky Way reveal strong magnetic fields
This shows that the two black holes also have very similar features in polarized light: “We now see that there are strong, twisted and ordered magnetic fields near the black hole in the center of the Milky Way,” explains Sara Issaoun from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian. During studies of M87*, researchers had previously discovered that magnetic fields in the area enabled the black hole to throw powerful jets of material back into the area. The new images show that this could also apply to Sgr A*.
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“Together with the fact that Sgr A* has a strikingly similar polarization structure to the much larger and stronger black hole M87*, we learned that strong and ordered magnetic fields are crucial to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them around each other,” says Issaoun, a co-leader of the project, in one notice.
Black holes have many similarities
“By measuring the polarized light from hot, glowing gas near black holes, we can directly infer the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that permeate the flow of gas and matter that the black hole collects and ejects,” emphasizes Angelo Ricarte, another co-leader of the project. “We can use polarized light to learn a lot more about astrophysics, the properties of the gas and the processes that occur when a black hole grows.”
The two black holes M87* (left) and Sgr A* (right) in polarized light. Both have similar magnetic field structures – suggesting that the magnetic fields could be universal features for supermassive black holes. © EHT Collaboration
Black holes have many similarities
Both black holes observed in polarized light had numerous similarities, including strong magnetic fields. This raises new questions in science. Mariafelicia De Laurentis, deputy EHT project scientist, explains what the researchers are now concerned with: “With this sample of two black holes – with very different masses and very different host galaxies – it is important to find out how they agree and how they differ.”
The researcher continues: “Since both indicate strong magnetic fields, this phenomenon could be a universal and perhaps fundamental feature of these types of systems. One of the similarities between these two black holes may be a jet. While we observed a very obvious jet on M87*, we have not yet been able to find it on Sgr A*.”
Does the black hole at the center of the Milky Way have a jet?
If this jet exists – a jet of matter that emits high-energy particles – it should only be a matter of time before it is detected. The team behind the Event Horizon Telescope wants to target the black hole at the center of the Milky Way again as early as April 2024. Additionally, expansions to participating telescopes are planned that will enable high-quality films of Sgr A* and the ability to find a potentially hidden jet over the next decade. (tab)
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