New data released by a team of hundreds of international scientists offers a more complete understanding of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy M87 and the system it feeds.
A dramatic video announcing the findings promises “an unprecedented insight” into the black hole and suggests that the observations could also help improve evidence for prolific mathematician Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
To measure and observe the behavior of the black hole, researchers collected information from 19 observatories, using images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Chandra’s X-ray Observatory, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, of the matrix of nuclear spectroscopic telescopes (NuSTAR), by Fermi. Gamma Ray Space Telescope and Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
In 2019, scientists released the first image of a black hole in the galaxy M87, 55 million light-years from Earth, using the EHT.
A co-author of a report on the new data sets published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the Kazuhiro Hada National Astronomical Observatory in Japan, told NASA that the image had reported its work.
“We knew the first direct image of a black hole would be innovative,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “But to get the most out of this remarkable image, we need to know everything we can about the behavior of the black hole at that time by observing the entire electromagnetic spectrum.”
For example, the space agency said in March that Chandra’s X-ray Observatory had found evidence of a jet of particles coming from a fast-growing supermassive black hole.
Astronomers have studied jets traveling at almost the speed of light over long distances and NASA said M87 jets produce light across the electromagnetic spectrum, suggesting that each black hole has a unique pattern based on intensity. of light it produces.
“Identifying this pattern provides a crucial insight into the properties of a black hole (e.g., its rotation and energy production), but this is a challenge because the pattern changes over time,” NASA said in the statement.
The various telescopes used in this coordinated enterprise help to characterize black holes and compensate for spectrum variability.
According to NASA, the observations, made from late March to mid-April 2017, mark the largest simultaneous observation campaign ever conducted in a supermassive black hole with jets.
“The combination of data from these current (and future) telescopes and EHT observations will allow scientists to conduct important lines of research on some of the most significant and challenging fields of study in astrophysics,” the agency said. noting that the first results showed the intensity of electromagnetic radiation produced by material around the supermassive black hole of M87 was the lowest ever seen.
This week, scientists from the EHT array are looking again at the black hole of M87, as well as several distant black holes. Since 2017, several radio telescopes have been added to the network.
Technical problems hampered the 2019 campaign and the 2020 campaign was dismissed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Space.com.
“With the release of this data, combined with the resumption of observation and improved EHT, we know there are many exciting new results on the horizon,” said co-author Mislav Baloković of Yale University , in the NASA statement.