Just in case you’re not aware, you must know that black holes are extremely weird cosmic objects – so weird that they defy even the laws of physics themselves. Time inside these cosmic monsters simply stops, even light cannot escape their huge gravity, and the examples can continue.
Last but not least, the supermassive black hole from the heart of the galaxy known as Messier 87 (M87) amazed scientists by shooting jets of plasma into space at almost the speed of light. We’re talking about the same black hole that was photographed by scientists in April 2019 – it became the very first black hole that was imaged by humanity.
Should we blame it on gravity?
According to Newsweek.com, astronomers using a supercomputer might have uncovered the secret behind the phenomenon of the powerful jets fired from M87.
A large disc of gas and dust is surrounding the black hole in question, and the material is swallowed by the space object itself. The jet fired from the accretion disc’s center has to receive fuel from a source that likely has a lot to do with the black’s hole gravity.
However, understanding exactly how the jet of plasma is formed and what’s keeping it stable is currently a major challenge for astronomers.
Dr. Alejandro Cruz-Osorio, who’s the lead author of the paper and also a member of the Institute of Theoretical Physics of Goethe University Frankfurt, declared as quoted by Newsweek.com:
Our theoretical model of the electromagnetic emission and of the jet morphology of M87 matches surprisingly well with the observations in the radio, optical and infrared spectra,
This tells us that the supermassive black hole M87 is probably highly rotating and that the plasma is strongly magnetized in the jet, accelerating particles out to scales of thousands of light-years.
The new research was published in Nature Astronomy.
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