Supermassive Black Hole Emitting Flares a Trillion Xs More Energetic Than Visible Light

Tossing around numbers beyond our human chimp-brain comprehension and using a worldwide combination of radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered that bursts of very high energy gamma rays are coming from a region very close to the supermassive black hole at the core of M87 more than six billion times more massive than the Sun.

The black hole in M87 has an "event horizon," from which matter cannot escape, roughly twice the size of our Solar System, or a tiny fraction of the size of the entire galaxy. The new measurements indicate that the gamma rays are coming from an area no larger than 50 times the size of the event horizon.

The discovery provides important new information about the mysterious workings of the powerful "engines" in the centers of innumerable galaxies throughout the Universe.

"Combining the gamma-ray observations with the supersharp radio 'vision' of the VLBA allowed us to see that the gamma rays are coming from a region very near the black hole itself," said Craig Walker, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

www.dailygalaxy.com...

Can you imagine that?
Not only the sheer size of this but the fact that it reads as though it out-powers the pull of a black hole is just mind numbing.
The speed the radio waves must be moving at is phenomenal. But as we have read recently in this thread we need to take a fresh, long look at our universe.

so is this correct that Gamma rays and radio are capable of escaping black holes?
Will radio be our way of learning what happens inside black holes, where they go and many more questions?

Is radio the secret key to our Universe?

Nothing (except for maybe Hawking radiation) can escape once it passes the event horizon of a black hole. The gamma rays being discussed are not originating from beyond the event horizon but near it. The radio waves are originating further away than that. This article is not about the gamma rays or the radio waves, we've known about that for a while. It is about the ability to more accurately locate their source.

As that material traveled down the jet, expanding and losing energy, the gamma-ray emission ceased, but the radio continued to increase in brightness," Walker explained. "The VLBA showed us with great precision where the radio emission came from, so we know the gamma rays came from closer in toward the black hole," he added.

But not beyond the event horizon.

www.dailygalaxy.com...

[edit on 7/6/2009 by Phage]

Black holes are just bad science

Black Holes Don’t Exist
www.abovetopsecret.com...

nice topic

im not much of a physicist, but i always though that the rays that emit from black holes actualy come from the Accretion disks surrounding them.

reply to post by boaby_phet

im not much of a physicist, but i always though that the rays that emit from black holes actualy come from the Accretion disks surrounding them.

They come from the poles of the black hole, basically it is a regurgitation of too much matter being 'sucked' in, or another theory is due to the extreme distortion of spacetime the magnetic field of the black hole 'corkscrews' a matter stream back up. Due to recent discoveries from SWIFT it is now believed that the particles that make up these polar jets are electrons and protons. It is kinda like the black hole is puking,lol.

[edit on 7/7/2009 by jkrog08]

reply to post by warrenb

Black Holes Don’t Exist

I wonder how you can explain away all the evidence of their existence, if they "do not exist", as you so astutely put it.

[edit on 7/7/2009 by jkrog08]

reply to post by jkrog08

boaby_phet is correct. Gamma ray bursts (and associated radio outbursts) originate in the accretion disk.

With XMM-Newton and Integral, they could detect some of the X-rays and gamma rays, emitted by the accretion disc, which partially penetrate the torus. "By peering right into the torus, we see the black hole phenomenon in a whole new light, or lack of light, as the case may be here," Beckmann said.

www.redorbit.com...

The particle jets you're talking about do produce gamma rays if they are energetic enough but not always.

reply to post by Phage


Yea, I was talking about the jets, I thought that was what he/she meant? LOL, as I do sometimes I am too quick to respond before realizing what I am responding to!lol, thanks for the clarification.

[edit on 7/7/2009 by jkrog08]