![]() The team discovered that only theoretical models with strongly magnetised gas can explain what they are seeing in the event horizon. The observations provide new information on the structure of the magnetic fields at the borders of the black hole. With this new image of the EHT, astronomers have managed to envisage for the first time the confines of the black hole where this interaction between the matter that flows inwards and the matter that is expelled takes place. ![]() But they still do not know exactly how streams that are larger than the galaxy are propelled from its central region (as small in size as the solar system), nor exactly how the matter falls in the black hole. The research team has drawn from different models of how matter behaves near the black hole to better understand this process. However, some of the surrounding particles escape moments before being captured and are expelled into space in the form of streams. A majority of the matter close to the border of a black hole falls inside. The bright streams of energy and matter that emerge from the nucleus of M87 and reach up to five thousand light years from the centre are one of the most mysterious and energetic characteristics of the Galaxy. “The recently published polarised images are key to understand how the magnetic field allows the black hole to “eat” matter and shoot powerful streams,” says Andrew Chael, member of the EHT and researcher at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science (USA). In the case of EHT, studying the polarisation of light allows astronomers to map the magnetic field lines that are very close to the event horizon of the black hole of M87. The same way as polarised sunglasses only let light through when the electric field is pointing in a specific direction, astronomers can detect the polarisation of light from space using polarisers installed in telescopes. The light becomes polarised when it passes through certain filters, such as the lenses of polarised sunglasses, or when beamed in hot and magnetised regions of space. “Revealing this new image in polarised light has required years of work due to the complex techniques involved in obtaining and analysing the data,” adds the researcher. “This study is a key landmark: the polarisation of light carries information that allows us to better understand the physics behind the image that we saw in April 2019, which was not possible before,” says Iván Martí-Vidal, fellow coordinator of the Polarimetry work group of the EHT collaboration and honourable GenT researcher of the University of Valencia. ![]() Since then, the EHT collaboration has looked into the data of the supermassive item at the heart of the M87 galaxy compiled in 2017, and they have discovered that a significant fraction of light around black hole M87 is polarised. ![]() The first image of a black hole was published on 10 April 2019, revealing a bright ring-shaped structure with a dark central region: the shadow of the black hole. “This is unique proof to understand how magnetic fields around black holes behave, and how the activity in this compact region of space can launch powerful streams that go beyond the galaxy”, explains Monika Mościbrodzka, coordinator of the Polarimetry work group of the EHT and assistant lecturer at the University of Radbout (Holland). These observations are key to explain how galaxy M87, located 55 million light years away, can shoot highly-energetic material from its nucleus.Īmong the specialists from different countries that have contributed to this project are astronomers Iván Martí-Vidal and Alejandro Mus, from the University of Valencia. This is the first time that astronomers have been able to measure the polarisation (the “signature” of magnetic fields) so close to the event horizon of a black hole. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, which produced the first image of a black hole, recently revealed a new image of the massive object at the heart of galaxy M87: how it is viewed in polarised light. A new landmark has been reached in astronomic observation by analysing the supermassive black hole of M87 in polarised light.
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