Two years ago, astronomers acquired the first direct image of a black hole. A coordinated observation campaign of this object is now added to our understanding of this black hole and its tumultuous environment.
Located at the core of the elliptical galaxy M87, this supermassive black hole carries the mass of 6.5 billion suns. In April 2019, the collaborating Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) launched a direct image of this object, in what was an unprecedented success for astronomers.
Our understanding of the M87 black hole has taken a big leap forward due to an extensive multi-wavelength observation campaign of the object, the details of which now appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters. This colossal campaign took place from April to March 2017 and involved 760 scientists from nearly 200 institutions around the world.
“This amazing set of observations includes many of the best telescopes in the world,” Juan Carlos Algaba, an astronomer at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said in a NASA JPL Press release. “This is a wonderful example of astronomers around the world working together in the pursuit of science.”
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A total of 19 different observatories were used during the campaign, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. Together, these observatories scanned the entire electromagnetic spectrum, offering observations of the M87 black hole in radio waves, visible light, X-rays, and gamma rays.
“We knew that the first direct image of a black hole would be groundbreaking,” said Kazuhiro Hada, co-author of the study and astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, in the NASA version. “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.”
An accompaniment video shows the power of this multi-wavelength approach. The video begins with the now iconic image of the M87 black hole and slowly zooms back in to expose the entire show in context. The scale is shown in light years and each observatory obtains credit for its particular contribution. Parallel comparisons are also shown, revealing views of the black hole as shown in radio waves, visible light, and X-rays. The final part of the video shows the black hole and its gamma-ray beam, such as as seen with the Fermi telescope.
The high-speed beam is an amazing feature of this and many other supermassive black holes. These jets are the result of the enormous gravitational forces involved and move at speeds close to that of light.
These jets produce different intensities of light across the spectrum, and scientists want to study the complex patterns they contain, as they are indicative of rotation, energy production, and other properties of the black hole. But this is not an easy task, as these variables change constantly over time. The new research, through its coordinated campaign, was an attempt to overcome this limitation and capture a snapshot of several wavelengths of the black hole using data captured by all of these observatories at approximately the same time. And, in fact, this is now the “largest simultaneous observation campaign ever conducted in a supermassive black hole with jets,” according to NASA.
The results could improve Einstein’s theory of general relativity and provide a better understanding of rays and their possible association with cosmic rays.
“Understanding particle acceleration is really critical to understanding both the EHT image and the jets, in all their‘ colors ’,” said Sera Markoff, co-author of the study and astronomer at the University of Amsterdam. in the press release. “These jets manage to transport the energy released by the black hole to larger scales than the host galaxy, like a huge power cord. Our results will help us calculate the amount of power transported and the effect the jets have. of the black hole on its surroundings “.
More observations are needed, but the good news is that EHT launched a new observation campaign this week. Excitingly, the new campaign will be even bigger, as it now includes the Kitt Peak Telescope in Arizona, the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France and the Greenland Telescope.
The results of the 2021 observation campaign will probably not be available for a while, but we can’t wait to see the result, including the change in the M87 black hole over the last four years.
More: In March 2021, astronomers first created an image of the magnetic field lines of the M87 black hole.