![]() ![]() Instead, the image showed the black hole’s silhouette, the accretion flow and the jet emerging from the system. They spotted a similar doughnut shape, but it was about 50 per cent thicker than the one seen by the EHT. Now, another team of researchers has employed a network of 10 radio telescopes to take another image, using a longer wavelength of radio emissions. In 2017, the eight telescopes of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) took the first image of M87*, a fuzzy-looking doughnut shape showing the silhouette of the black hole against a background of glowing matter falling into it in what is called an accretion flow. M87* is about 55 million light years away, and it lies at the centre of an enormous galaxy called M87. This new data will help researchers complete the picture. The black hole in question – M87* – was the first black hole to be directly imaged a few years ago. ![]() ![]() R.-S.Lu (SHAO) and E.Ros (MPIfR), S.Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)Ī new image of a supermassive black hole has revealed more of the disc of matter falling into it and the powerful winds created by that process. “Now we can start to address questions such as how particles are accelerated and heated, and many other mysteries around the black hole, more deeply.”ĭr Ziri Younsi, an astrophysicist at University College London, who was not involved in the latest work, described the image as “really exciting”, adding: “It’s another important piece of the story of how black holes power jets.M87* swallowing matter and shooting out a jet ![]() “This is the first image where we are able to pin down where the ring is, relative to the powerful jet escaping out of the central black hole,” said Dr Kazunori Akiyama, of MIT’s Haystack Observatory, who developed the imaging software used to visualise the black hole. The new image, published in Nature, shows the base of the jet connecting with the matter swirling around a supermassive black hole, although it does not pinpoint precisely the origin. Theory suggests they could be anchored close to the event horizon, the so-called point of no return, or just outside it in the Ergoregion, a zone in which space-time itself co-rotates with the black hole. However, it is not clear exactly where the jets emanate from. Scientists think the jets are powered by the rotation of the black hole. The target is the galaxy M87, located 55m light years away, and home to a black hole 6.5bn times more massive than the sun. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |