A new image of the supermassive M87 black hole has been unveiled by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) giving a closer look at how the black hole interacts with the matter surrounding it.
The EHT team released the first image of a black hole in 2019, revealing a bright ring-like structure with a dark central region described as the black hole’s shadow.
The new observations, described in two papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, provide insights into the region just outside the black hole, where some matter is falling in, while other matter is being blown into space in the form of bright, powerful jets that extend at least 5,000 light years away, beyond the galaxy in which the black hole resides.
Using the same data as for their first image, the collaboration analysed polarised light around the black hole – that is, light whose waves are vibrating in one direction only. The light becomes polarised when it is emitted in hot regions of space that are magnetised. By looking at how it has become polarised, astronomers can learn about the material that produced it.
Researchers say their new evidence brings us a step closer to understanding how these mysterious jets are produced, and how magnetic fields appear to act to keep hot gas out of the black hole, helping it resist gravity’s pull.
Co-author and EHT collaboration member Dr Ziri Younsi (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, MSSL) said: “These ground-breaking measurements of the polarisation of light produced at the edge of the black hole’s event horizon provide us with exciting new insights into the physical processes by which black holes feed on matter, and how they are able to power such prodigious relativistic outflows as astrophysical jets. In particular, they hint at the role played by magnetic fields in these processes.”
