As of: March 28, 2024, 3:34 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Black holes are not as different as you think. New research reveals strong magnetic fields and raises an exciting question.
Munich – Black holes are fascinating and enigmatic celestial bodies. They swallow everything that comes near them and let nothing escape - not even light. Therefore, they are invisible to the human eye, but also to telescopes and other aids. But a few years ago, a research consortium managed to capture the immediate surroundings of two black holes, including their “shadows”.
The images released by the team behind the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) of the black hole M87* at the heart of the M87 galaxy and the black hole Sgr A* at the center of our Milky Way caused a stir around the world.
Event Horizon Telescope looks into the center of the Milky Way
Although Sgr A* is over a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87*, the images of the two black holes are surprisingly similar. This led to the question of whether the two black holes share similarities in other aspects as well. To answer this question, a research team once again looked at 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, which oscillates in a preferred orientation, is almost indistinguishable from normal light to the human eye. However, in the plasma around black holes, scientists can better recognize the processes in polarized light and map magnetic field lines. That's exactly what the EHT research team did and has now published a new image of the black hole Sgr A*.
Black holes M87* and Sgr A* are very similar
The image 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 at the center of the Milky Way,” says Sara Issaoun from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian. When studying M87*, scientists had previously found that magnetic fields in the area enable the black hole to eject powerful jets of material back into the area. The new images suggest that this may also be true for Sgr A*.
“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 “interact around us,” explains Issaoun, one of the project managers.
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“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 project leader, said in a statement. “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.”
Polarized light reveals strong magnetic fields at the center of the Milky Way
The two black holes observed in polarized light share many similarities, including strong magnetic fields. This raises new questions in science. Mariafelicia De Laurentis, deputy EHT project scientist, explains the current research questions: "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."
She adds: “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*.”
Is the black hole at the center of the Milky Way ejecting matter?
If this jet - a beam of matter that ejects high-energy particles - exists, it may only be a matter of time before it is discovered. The team behind the Event Horizon Telescope plans to target the black hole at the center of the Milky Way again in April 2024. In addition, expansions to the participating telescopes are planned that would enable high-quality films of Sgr A* in the next decade and could detect a potentially hidden jet.
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