Mind-blowing new image shows off our black hole like never seen before
The monster black hole lurking at the centre of our galaxy has been captured in stunning new detail by astronomers – and it’s giving off major Lord Of The Rings vibes.
The new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration shows the organised magnetic fields at the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the wispy spiral resembling J R R Tolkein’s Eye of Sauron.
The team behind the image say it looks remarkably similar to the first black hole ever pictured, M87, suggesting strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes.
The image was taken in polarised light to fully capture the extraordinary detail.
Study co-author Dr Ziri Younsi, from UCL and a member of the EHT collaboration, said: ‘It is very exciting to see the first polarised images of the black hole in the heart of our galaxy.
‘These observations reveal much more information about the magnetic fields surrounding the black hole and will improve our ability to model accreting black holes in the future.
‘It is remarkable that the polarisation structure of Sgr A* is so similar to that of the M87 black hole, which we know possesses a prodigious relativistic jet.
‘This exciting new study hints at the possibility of a jet hiding near the event horizon of Sgr A*.’
Visible light is an oscillating, or moving, electromagnetic wave that allows us to see objects, while polarised light is light in which the electric and magnetic fields each vibrate in a single plane.
Although it surrounds us, human eyes cannot tell it apart from normal light.
Around the black holes, particles whirling around magnetic field lines give off a polarisation pattern, allowing astronomers to see what is happening in black hole regions in increasing detail and to map their magnetic field lines.
EHT project scientist Geoffrey Bower said: ‘Making a polarised image is like opening the book after you have only seen the cover. Because Sgr A* moves around while we try to take its picture, it was difficult to construct even the unpolarised image.
‘We were relieved that polarised imaging was even possible. Some models were far too scrambled and turbulent to construct a polarised image, but nature was not so cruel.’
The black hole is around 27,000 light-years away from Earth and appears about the same size as a doughnut on the Moon.
We can’t see the black hole itself, because it is completely dark, but the new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than the Sun.
The EHT collaboration involves more than 300 researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America, and links eight telescopes around the world to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope.
The team is working to capture the most detailed black hole images ever obtained by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope.
The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO )is a partner, and the ESO-hosted Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), both in northern Chile, were part of the network that made the observations, conducted in 2017.
The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.