2024-04-05 12:47:23
This is a radio wave observation of the supermassive black hole “Sagittarius A*” (its mass is about 4 million times that of the sun), located about 27,000 light years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. This image was created based on the data obtained. The international research team “Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)” released it on March 27, 2024.
[▼ The area surrounding Sagittarius A* was obtained by analyzing observational data obtained in April 2017 using the Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI), which links radio telescopes at eight locations around the world. Polarization image (Credit: EHT Collaboration)]
EHT is a research team that observes and studies supermassive black holes that are thought to exist in the centers of galaxies. To date, 2019 images of the area surrounding the supermassive black hole (with a mass approximately 6.5 billion times that of the Sun) located at the center of the elliptical galaxy M87, approximately 55 million light years away in the constellation Virgo, have been released. In April 2022, images of Sagittarius A*, the center of the Milky Way galaxy, will be released for the first time in May 2022. For images of supermassive black holes released by EHT, please also see the related articles below.
Related article
・What we can learn from the changed and unchanged parts of “M87’s black hole” photographed for the first time in a year (January 26, 2024)
・Succeeded in simultaneously capturing the structure around a supermassive black hole and the root of the jet for the first time (April 27, 2023)
・[Commentary]The supermassive black hole “Sagittarius A*” in the Milky Way galaxy has finally been photographed successfully! Its outline has been captured (May 13, 2022)
What EHT has released this time is a polarization image of the area around Sagittarius A* drawn based on the analysis of observation data acquired in April 2017. Polarized light is electromagnetic waves (light) that propagate through space while vibrating in a specific direction. Electromagnetic waves are originally a mixture of waves that vibrate in various directions, but when the vibrations are biased for some reason, it is called polarized light. In everyday life, it is used in products such as polarized sunglasses, which reduce glare by cutting polarized light reflected from surfaces such as water.
In the image above, the polarization direction of radio waves arriving from around Sagittarius A* is represented by a line. According to EHT, particles swirling around magnetic field lines around a black hole create a polarization pattern perpendicular to the magnetic field lines. In other words, by examining the polarization of radio waves arriving from around the black hole, we can indirectly visualize the magnetic field lines around the black hole.
EHT has already conducted similar analysis on M87’s supermassive black hole, and polarization images around the black hole were released in March 2021. According to Professor Mariafelicia De Laurentis of the University of Naples Federico II, who is EHT’s deputy project scientist, despite the differences in properties such as mass and the number of galaxies that exist, Since the magnetic field structures of the supermassive black holes in Locus A* and M87 are very similar, the physical processes such as the supply of gas and the emission of jets (narrow, high-speed streams of gas) are common in supermassive black holes. He commented that this is an important discovery that suggests the possibility that this is the case.
[▲ Comparison of polarization images around the supermassive black hole of elliptical galaxy M87 (left) and around Sagittarius A* (right). The scale bar at the bottom left indicates 50 microseconds. The mass of M87’s supermassive black hole is more than 1000 times that of Sagittarius A*, and it has a ring structure with a diameter proportional to that mass. However, because M87 is farther from Earth, its apparent size is coincidentally Almost complete (Credit: EHT Collaboration)]
EHT has been observing Sagittarius A* since 2017, and the most recent observation is scheduled for April 2024. With each new observation, updates are made such as adding telescopes, expanding the radio wave bandwidth used for observation, and introducing new observation frequencies, so the images obtained are said to be improving every year. Compared to M87’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*’s surrounding structure changes in a shorter period of time, so advanced imaging techniques are required. It is hoped that the expansion of the EHT, which is planned over the next 10 years, will produce highly reliable videos that may shed light on jet ejections that have not been clearly seen in Sagittarius A*. It has been.
Source
- Event Horizon Telescope – Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole
- EHT-Japan – Discovery of a powerful magnetic field swirling around the edge of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy
- THAT – Astronomers unveil strong magnetic fields spiraling at the edge of Milky Way’s central black hole
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