As of: January 24, 2024, 5:39 a.m
By: Tanja Banner
Comments
Press
Split
A second image of the black hole M87* shows that the theory of relativity describes the object well.
One researcher sees an “extremely important result.”
Frankfurt – In 2019, the research team behind the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) made scientific history when they published the first image of a black hole.
M87* is a supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy.
The image showed a bright orange ring, one side of which was brighter than the other.
At the center of the ring was a dark region - the shadow of the black hole falling on the surrounding mass.
Black holes themselves cannot be recorded because not even light can escape them.
The data for this first recording was collected in 2017.
Just one year later - before the first image of a black hole was published - the EHT looked again in the direction of M87*.
From the data set that was collected in 2018, a long, detailed work resulted in another image of the black hole - which looks very similar to the first image.
The second image of M87* has now been published - with explanations from the research team why the new image is important.
Black hole M87*: Radius will remain unchanged throughout human history
“A basic requirement for science is the reproducibility of results,” explains researcher Keiichi Asada, who is involved in the EHT.
“Confirmation of the ring in a completely new data set is a major milestone for our collaboration and a strong indication that we are looking at a shadow of the black hole and the material orbiting it.” But why has the size or appearance changed of the black hole has hardly changed over time?
Surname: |
M87* |
|---|---|
Location: |
at the center of the galaxy M87 |
Distance to Earth: |
about 55 million light years |
Dimensions: |
6.5 billion solar masses |
Radius: |
60,000 light years |
Constellation: |
Virgo |
“One of the remarkable properties of a black hole is that its radius depends strongly on a single quantity: its mass,” explains researcher Nitika Yadlapalli Yurk in an EHT communication.
“Because M87* does not rapidly accumulate mass, general relativity tells us that its radius will remain fairly unchanged throughout human history.
It’s pretty exciting to see that our data confirms this prediction.”
Only the position of the bright ring has changed in the image of M87*
The biggest difference between the two shots is the position of the bright part of the ring.
“This is actually something we predicted when we published our first results in 2019,” says scientist Britt Jeter.
Einstein's general theory of relativity says that the size of the ring should remain fairly constant.
“However, emission from the turbulent, chaotic accretion disk around the black hole will cause the brightest part of the ring to wobble around a common center,” Jeter said.
The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has released a new image of the black hole M87*.
The first image - the first ever image of a black hole - was taken from data from 2017. The new image was taken from a data set from 2018. © EHT Collaboration
The Goethe University in Frankfurt also works with EHT data.
Luciano Rezzolla, EHT board member and professor in Frankfurt, emphasizes: “All predictions about the appearance of the black hole M87* that we made based on Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity are confirmed by the second image of M87*.” Also the brightness maximum the ring is in the “right” place.
Theoretical physicist Rezzolla is realistic: For the public, the second image of the black hole “may not be particularly spectacular.”
My news
Which planet is closest to Earth?
The answer is harder than expected to read
When the next full moon will be in the sky - read the list with all the dates for 2024
Dark object discovered in space: “Whatever it is, it’s exciting news” read
The sun will be more active than it has been in two decades
Earth receives cat video via laser beam – read from 31 million kilometers away
Researchers suspect extraterrestrial technology behind mysterious discovery on Earth
Second image of black hole M87*: “Extremely important result”
For science, however, things look different: “For science, this is an extremely important result.
Because while a major discovery creates excitement in science, the confirmation of research results provides confidence in science. The new image of the black hole proves that the analysis on which the first image was based “was actually correct and accurate,” said the researcher.
A research team from China discovered last year that the black hole M87* is rotating.
Another research group has discovered the oldest black hole known to date.
(tab)