First evidence of spinning black hole detected by scientists
Astronomers have captured the first image showing a powerful jet being launched from the edge of a black hole’s event horizon into intergalactic space.
The observations of the black hole at the centre of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87) could help reveal how black hole jets, which are among the brightest objects in the universe, are created.
“We know that jets are ejected from the region surrounding black holes, but we still do not fully understand how this actually happens,” said Dr Ru-Sen Lu, the lead author of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory.
“To study this directly we need to observe the origin of the jet as close as possible to the black hole.”
Most galaxies harbour a supermassive black hole at their centre and these objects act as galactic sinkholes, permanently swallowing anything that drifts over their event horizon. Many black holes also launch powerful jets of matter from their poles at close to the speed of light.
The latest observations were made in 2018 with telescopes from the Global Millimetre VLBI Array (GMVA), the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Greenland Telescope (GLT).
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/27/first-evidence-of-spinning-black-hole-detected-by-scientists
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