A team of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has taken a significant step towards understanding how supermassive black holes launch powerful jets into space. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is now poised to reveal the details of these jets, which are found in galaxies like NGC 1052.
The research project aims to investigate the origins of galaxy-size streams of high-energy particles, known as jets, that emerge from supermassive black holes at nearly light-speed. To achieve this, scientists used coordinated measurements with several radio telescopes, including ALMA and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, in a configuration that would allow for the best possible estimate of its potential for future observations.
The results confirm strong magnetic fields close to the black hole’s edge, which is about 400 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. This strength suggests that the magnetic field can stop material from falling into the black hole, thereby helping to launch the galaxy’s two jets.
While the source is challenging, the EHT Collaboration aims to capture the most detailed black hole images ever obtained by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. The team used measurements from 19 radio telescopes worldwide, including those in Chile, Spain, Finland, Germany, Hawaii, and Antarctica.
The project’s findings are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on December 17, 2024. With this new information, scientists are confident that successful imaging will be possible in the future, thanks to the brightness of the black hole’s surroundings at a specific frequency of radio waves and the similarity in size between the region where jets are formed and the ring of M 87*.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2024-12-event-horizon-telescope-black-hole.html