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A ring made of empty dark holes and surrounding light. It was in April 2019 that the whole world was fascinated by the appearance of an invisible black hole. The black hole is in the center of the elliptical galaxy M87, 5,500 light-years from Earth. The Horizon Telescope EHT team, which succeeded in shooting, has been conducting data analysis afterwards, and succeeded in capturing the polarization of radio waves near the black hole, and released the image. According to the EHT team, it is the first achievement to directly show the existence of a magnetic field around a black hole.
M87 can be said to be active in a classification galaxy called blazar, erupting super-fast jets from its nucleus. It can be said that the direction of the magnetic field is what determines the jet properties, but the details are still shrouded in mystery. In other words, if we can elucidate the structure of the magnetic field around the black hole, we may be able to elucidate unknown mechanisms.
The observations released by EHT are expected to be the key to solving the super-fast jet mystery.
When the light emitted by the nucleus located in the center of the black hole is visualized, the direction of the magnetic field is indicated by fine swirling lines in newer information. When the magnetic field surrounding the black hole is weak, the magnetic field is attracted by the flow and concentrically surrounds the black hole, and the light emitted from the nucleus vibrates in a direction perpendicular to the disk without being affected by the magnetic field. However, when the magnetic field is strong, the light vibration pattern changes. And if the magnetic field force is in the middle, the light vibration pattern will be swirled.
The research team revealed that from the results of this study, the magnetic field near the center of the M87, that is, the black hole, is almost an azimuth in contrast to the ring. Because the magnetic field structure is vertical, it can be seen that the magnetic field surrounding the black hole is not swept away forcelessly, but the magnetic field itself seems to have become a jet skeleton.
It is a black hole that has been unable to even see its appearance for a long time because it even inhales light, but the EHT team has succeeded in removing the veil that was covering the black hole and taking a peek at what was going on inside for the first time.
At EHT, researchers from 60 institutions working in 20 countries and regions participated and conducted observations by linking 8 radio telescopes around the world. The image obtained by using VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry), a method of observing the same celestial body simultaneously with multiple radio telescopes and drawing the resolution as if one giant telescope operates, clarifies the appearance of a black hole that was previously impossible. Grasps and supports Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
However, only one veil has been removed. There are still more secrets hiding inside the black hole. The research team hopes to look deeper inside the M87 in future studies and clarify how the ultrafast jet is released and the straight line is accelerated. To obtain this information, expansion of the VLBI is more essential. It is said that more radio telescopes need to be integrated because the existing system cannot achieve sufficient resolution. Related information can be found here.
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