![]() ![]() “Polarization is one of the most direct probes into the magnetic field that nature provides.” “One of the main science drivers of the EHT is distinguishing different magnetic field configurations around the black hole,” says Angelo Ricarte, a co-author and researcher at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). In two studies published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, EHT astronomers reveal their latest findings and how magnetic fields may be influencing the black hole at the center of galaxy M87. 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? Scientists still don’t understand how magnetic fields - areas where magnetism affects how matter moves - influence black hole activity. The image marks the first time astronomers have captured and mapped polarization, a sign of magnetic fields, so close to the edge of a black hole. Images released today by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration reveal how the black hole, some 55 million light-years away, appears in polarized light. Astronomers have now obtained a new view of the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87. Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, " Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018 illustrated by Karl Tate ), is out now. What Exactly Is a Black Hole Event Horizon (and What Happens There)?."There are a lot of interesting things that we can find out." "There's a multitude of ways that would be complementary of studying the conditions near a supermassive black hole," Loeb, who is not part of the EHT team, told. "The subject of black holes is for prime time," said Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard's astronomy department and founding director of the university's interdisciplinary Black Hole Initiative. ![]() The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has detected the space-time ripples generated by mergers involving relatively small black holes - objects harboring just a few dozen times the mass of the sun.Īnd future projects - such as the European Space Agency's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission, which is scheduled to launch in the mid-2030s - will aim to spot gravitational waves generated by mergers of supermassive black holes. For example, NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) spacecraft is hunting for, and helping to characterize, supermassive black holes around the universe. So, it's unclear how the team would get data down from space, EHT project scientist Dimitrios Psaltis, of the University of Arizona, said during the SXSW event last month.)ĮHT isn't the only project shining significant light on black holes. Each EHT dish collects so much data during the project's observing runs that hard drives must be physically transported from telescope sites to central processing facilities there's just too much to relay electronically on any reasonable timescale. (Interestingly, the biggest obstacle to this grand expansion may be data transmission. That’s what we want to do over the next decade." ![]() "We want to make a movie in real time of things orbiting around the black hole. "We could make movies instead of pictures," Doeleman said in an EHT talk last month at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. Going into space would allow the EHT to capture some even more jaw-dropping imagery. "If we could put a space-based radio telescope in orbit around the Earth, it would sweep out even more of that virtual mirror and do it much more quickly." "World domination is not enough for us we also want to go into space," Doeleman said. Over the longer haul, the collaboration would like the virtual scope to include an off-planet dish. "So, you wind up sharpening your image just by observing at higher frequencies."Īnd that's just the near future. "It sounds like a small jump, but it increases your angular resolution - the resolving power - by over 30%," Doeleman said. But the project soon plans to look at the 0.87-mm frequency as well, which should lead to additional improvements. To date, the EHT has observed the black holes in just one frequency - light with a wavelength of 1.3 millimeters. "They'll fill out that virtual mirror that we're trying to build." "These will all increase the imaging fidelity," Doeleman said. The team will also soon incorporate another dish - one atop Kitt Peak, in southern Arizona, he added. ![]() The team added one dish, in Greenland, for the 2018 campaign, "which dramatically increased our coverage to the north on M87," Doeleman said. (You have to go that big to resolve the two supermassive black holes, which are incredibly dense but quite small, volumewise, on a cosmic scale.) During the 2017 run, eight dishes in six different locales comprised the EHT megascope. The EHT integrates multiple radio telescopes around the world, forming a virtual instrument the size of Earth. ![]()
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