For The First Time, Twisted Light Reveals Magnetic Fields Around The Black Hole M87*

M87* is the Black Hole that grabbed our attention in 2019 when astronomers published the first direct image of a Black Hole captured by the Event Horizon Telescope , since then they have continued to analyse the data leading to the discovery that the image contains evidence of light being twisted by the gravitational forces of the Black Hole.

Now, scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration have carefully analyzed that glowing ring of golden light from 55 million light-years away, and found evidence of strong polarization - the twisting of the orientation of the light waves, generated by powerful magnetic fields in the region around the black hole.

"This work is a major milestone: the polarization of light carries information that allows us to better understand the physics behind the image we saw in April 2019, which was not possible before," said astronomer Iván Martí-Vidal of the University of Valencia in Spain.

"Unveiling this new polarized-light image required years of work due to the complex techniques involved in obtaining and analyzing the data."

Polarization is a well known and understood behavior of electromagnetic radiation. As a particle of light travels through space, its oscillations are oriented in a certain direction. If it is scattered by, for example, dust in the interstellar medium, or rotated by a magnetic field, its orientation can change; we call that change polarization.

Aside from being a pretty picture the discovery could help unlock long held secrets of Black Holes.

This could be key to understanding a phenomenon that has long proven to be a puzzle - relativistic black hole jets.

Nothing that we can currently detect can escape a black hole once it's passed the critical proximity threshold, but not all the material in the accretion disk swirling into an active black hole inevitably ends up beyond the event horizon. A small fraction of it somehow gets funneled from the inner region of the accretion disk to the poles where it is blasted into space in the form of jets of ionized plasma, at speeds a significant percentage of the speed of light.

Astronomers think that the black hole's magnetic field plays a role in this process. The magnetic field lines, according to this theory, act as a synchrotron that accelerates material before launching it at tremendous speed.
www.sciencealert.com...

originally posted by: gortex
M87* is the Black Hole that grabbed our attention in 2019 when astronomers published the first direct image of a Black Hole captured by the Event Horizon Telescope , since then they have continued to analyse the data leading to the discovery that the image contains evidence of light being curved by the gravitational forces of the Black Hole.

Now, scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration have carefully analyzed that glowing ring of golden light from 55 million light-years away, and found evidence of strong polarization - the twisting of the orientation of the light waves, generated by powerful magnetic fields in the region around the black hole.

"This work is a major milestone: the polarization of light carries information that allows us to better understand the physics behind the image we saw in April 2019, which was not possible before," said astronomer Iván Martí-Vidal of the University of Valencia in Spain.

"Unveiling this new polarized-light image required years of work due to the complex techniques involved in obtaining and analyzing the data."

Polarization is a well known and understood behavior of electromagnetic radiation. As a particle of light travels through space, its oscillations are oriented in a certain direction. If it is scattered by, for example, dust in the interstellar medium, or rotated by a magnetic field, its orientation can change; we call that change polarization.

Aside from being a pretty picture the discovery could help unlock long held secrets of Black Holes.

This could be key to understanding a phenomenon that has long proven to be a puzzle - relativistic black hole jets.

Nothing that we can currently detect can escape a black hole once it's passed the critical proximity threshold, but not all the material in the accretion disk swirling into an active black hole inevitably ends up beyond the event horizon. A small fraction of it somehow gets funneled from the inner region of the accretion disk to the poles where it is blasted into space in the form of jets of ionized plasma, at speeds a significant percentage of the speed of light.

Astronomers think that the black hole's magnetic field plays a role in this process. The magnetic field lines, according to this theory, act as a synchrotron that accelerates material before launching it at tremendous speed.
www.sciencealert.com...

This stuff is fascinating and even more so when you realize this happened in the mid 60's and we are just now seeing it. Great post

Is a black hole a disc? Is it a sphere? Is it like a plug hole? I am interested to know.

a reply to: ARM1968

I think plug hole is best fit , stuff that goes in doesn't come out.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: ARM1968

I think plug hole is best fit , stuff that goes in doesn't come out.

Yes, but then if you slip round the back of a black hole and look from the other side, is that a plug hole too? A long tube? A tornado line affair? You see, if it is created by gravitational collapse then it collapses inwards upon itself as a sphere. So surely a black hole is really a sphere. If it isn’t then we should be able to travel around it and look at it from every angle. What would we see?

originally posted by: ARM1968

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: ARM1968

I think plug hole is best fit , stuff that goes in doesn't come out.

Yes, but then if you slip round the back of a black hole and look from the other side, is that a plug hole too? A long tube? A tornado line affair? You see, if it is created by gravitational collapse then it collapses inwards upon itself as a sphere. So surely a black hole is really a sphere. If it isn’t then we should be able to travel around it and look at it from every angle. What would we see?

LOL are you trying to melt people's brains, then it's not a sphere till that final phase nor is it a black hole at that point if I'm following you correctly, and then there is the messy thought where does all of it go? Does it blip out of existence? turn into anti matter?

originally posted by: ARM1968
Is a black hole a disc? Is it a sphere? Is it like a plug hole? I am interested to know.

I'll explain it to you as simply as I can.

Basically a star is a balance between the nuclear reactions trying to explode the star outward and gravity trying to implode the star inward. It sustains itself into a burning ball. When a star uses up its fuel there is no longer nuclear reactions happening in the star enough to stop the implosion of gravity and therefore a few things could occur depending on the mass of the star. When the star is about 50 solar masses or bigger then it will likely collapse in and in and in.

The matter will scrunch all the way down to a single point called a singularly. So moving away from the singularly we reach the "event horizon" this is spherical in shape surrounding the singularity. The event horizon is the point of no return even for light. This is where we see the accretion disk and also where the plasma jets appear to animate from.

So I guess the actual black hole itself I would call it a point. A singular point. Very strange as that seems. It really doesn't make mathematical sense or even physical sense.

Fun fact- it is possible to make smaller black holes. The thing is it's about the density of the matter that makes it a black hole. For instance if you could smash the earth into the size of a marble then you would get a small black hole. Technically you could smash smaller bits of material together such as even a few atoms and get a black hole although the smaller the black hole the faster it will burn out due to hawking radiation. Tiny ones could last milliseconds..

Large black holes such as the one in the center of our galaxy which has the mass of millions of our sun would take billions of trillions of years to evaporate through Hawking radiation.

I'll shut up now hahaha I can talk all day about black holes sorry!

originally posted by: ARM1968

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: ARM1968

I think plug hole is best fit , stuff that goes in doesn't come out.

Yes, but then if you slip round the back of a black hole and look from the other side, is that a plug hole too? A long tube? A tornado line affair? You see, if it is created by gravitational collapse then it collapses inwards upon itself as a sphere. So surely a black hole is really a sphere. If it isn’t then we should be able to travel around it and look at it from every angle. What would we see?

You would think the presence of electricity and magnetism would indicate that gravity isn’t a driving force in this phenomena, the presence of huge magnetic forces indicates the presence of huge electric forces. Probably indicative of an electrical source to a black hole 🕳

Your source contradicts your testimony that gravity is doing anything to anything in this situation gortex.

Sorry brother, I think gravity can sit this one out.

Sorry alien abduct. Your hypothesis is a crock. Gravity doesn’t create magnetism. Only electricity creates magnetism. There is no evidence of gravity in the article, only huge magnetic fields. Go figure, nuclear forces and gravity battling it out till the fuel dries up ain’t what the evidence suggests.

a reply to: Dalamax
Maybe it's similar to Peizo Electrics.
The more it crushes the bigger the charge causing magnetism as it spins like a motor?

a reply to: Dalamax

Your source contradicts your testimony that gravity is doing anything to anything in this situation gortex.

Sorry brother, I think gravity can sit this one out.

The fact that there is an entire galaxy of stars orbiting this black hole says you are imphatically wrong.

Sorry alien abduct. Your hypothesis is a crock. Gravity doesn’t create magnetism. Only electricity creates magnetism. There is no evidence of gravity in the article, only huge magnetic fields. Go figure, nuclear forces and gravity battling it out till the fuel dries up ain’t what the evidence suggests.

I hope you are trolling dude....if not then you need to go read...a lot.

The magnetic field is created by the accretion disk which is created by...you guessed it....GRAVITY.

originally posted by: Alien Abduct

originally posted by: ARM1968
Is a black hole a disc? Is it a sphere? Is it like a plug hole? I am interested to know.

I'll explain it to you as simply as I can.

Basically a star is a balance between the nuclear reactions trying to explode the star outward and gravity trying to implode the star inward. It sustains itself into a burning ball. When a star uses up its fuel there is no longer nuclear reactions happening in the star enough to stop the implosion of gravity and therefore a few things could occur depending on the mass of the star. When the star is about 50 solar masses or bigger then it will likely collapse in and in and in.

The matter will scrunch all the way down to a single point called a singularly. So moving away from the singularly we reach the "event horizon" this is spherical in shape surrounding the singularity. The event horizon is the point of no return even for light. This is where we see the accretion disk and also where the plasma jets appear to animate from.

So I guess the actual black hole itself I would call it a point. A singular point. Very strange as that seems. It really doesn't make mathematical sense or even physical sense.

Fun fact- it is possible to make smaller black holes. The thing is it's about the density of the matter that makes it a black hole. For instance if you could smash the earth into the size of a marble then you would get a small black hole. Technically you could smash smaller bits of material together such as even a few atoms and get a black hole although the smaller the black hole the faster it will burn out due to hawking radiation. Tiny ones could last milliseconds..

Large black holes such as the one in the center of our galaxy which has the mass of millions of our sun would take billions of trillions of years to evaporate through Hawking radiation.

I'll shut up now hahaha I can talk all day about black holes sorry!

Thanks for that. I know. But thanks. Which way is the singularity oriented? Gravitational collapse and the formation of a singularity are mathematically feasible. However the amount of matter going in to a black hole from all directions must converge on that central point - so in effect it goes nowhere but continues to compress, if you will. So then 360 degree suction down to a point. In effect just like a planet or sun in that gravity is pulling everything in towards the centre, to a tiny super compressed point but on a much more massive scale.

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
a reply to: Dalamax

Your source contradicts your testimony that gravity is doing anything to anything in this situation gortex.

Sorry brother, I think gravity can sit this one out.

The fact that there is an entire galaxy of stars orbiting this black hole says you are imphatically wrong.

Sorry alien abduct. Your hypothesis is a crock. Gravity doesn’t create magnetism. Only electricity creates magnetism. There is no evidence of gravity in the article, only huge magnetic fields. Go figure, nuclear forces and gravity battling it out till the fuel dries up ain’t what the evidence suggests.

I hope you are trolling dude....if not then you need to go read...a lot.

The magnetic field is created by the accretion disk which is created by...you guessed it....GRAVITY.

Brother. Magnetism doesn’t come from anything other then electricity. Make me a magnet without using electricity. I double dare you.

And show me the calculation for the pull needed to make a galaxy of stars circle a gravity well.

Hell give me a definition of gravity.

But we know that atoms spin. And are charged particles. Go figure, electricity produces spin.
Who would have thunk it. Right?

Your gravity gets weaker the further apart your bits get.
Wouldn’t Mercury be long gone by now if Jupiter is still caught in the suns gravity?
Just saying.

originally posted by: UKWO1Phot
a reply to: Dalamax
Maybe it's similar to Peizo Electrics.
The more it crushes the bigger the charge causing magnetism as it spins like a motor?

So it’s a big rock? What imparts the spin in this motor? Look around you?
What transmits that picture to your brain and how? What brings that picture to your eye and what spectrum is it on?
What runs nerves and what is lightning? And the Aurora’s?
Don’t have to look far to find a constant do we?
What fills space? Plasma. What is a plasma? Let me know what you find the answer is.
Does the earth hold a charge?
Tell me what gravity has done lately.
?

a reply to: Dalamax

youtu.be...

I’ll just leave this here.

Sorry I can’t embed for spit

a reply to: Dalamax

youtu.be...

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