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Judi Lynn

(162,357 posts)
Sat Nov 18, 2023, 07:10 PM Nov 2023

1st black hole to be imaged is spewing 'lightsaber' energy jets larger than the Milky Way, and scientists think they kno

By Harry Baker published 1 day ago

Researchers may have finally figured out how fast-spinning black holes lose energy in the form of enormous energy jets after taking a closer look at the supermassive black hole M87*.



A wide-field image of the Messier 87 galaxy with a zoomed in picture of energy jets shooting out of the galaxy (top box) and the Event Horizon Telescope's first ever image of the M87* supermassive black hole (bottom box). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration)
The mystery of how black holes can lose energy to their surroundings has plagued scientists for nearly 50 years. But a group of researchers may have just found the answer to this cosmic puzzle lurking in the gigantic, lightsaber-like jets that shoot out from one of the most monstrous and well-studied black holes in the universe.

It's generally thought that nothing, not even light, can escape a black hole's intense gravitational pull — but this is not entirely true. Since the late 1970s, scientists have theorized that, as a black hole spins at extremely fast speeds, it could lose rotational energy in the form of enormous energy jets that shoot out perpendicularly to a black hole's event horizon, or the boundary beyond which nothing can escape the black hole’s pull. (Information may also escape from black holes via complex gravitational "twisting," but this is a completely different puzzle.)

However, despite detecting these energy jets multiple times and even photographing them, scientists have remained unsure exactly how energy is transferred between the spinning black holes and their supercharged outflows.

To solve this problem, researchers from Princeton University have turned their attention to M87* — a supermassive black hole with an equivalent mass of 6.5 billion suns at the heart of the massive Messier 87 galaxy, which is located 53 million light-years from Earth.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/enormous-cosmic-lightsabers-from-gigantic-galaxy-could-help-solve-one-of-the-biggest-black-hole-mysteries

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1st black hole to be imaged is spewing 'lightsaber' energy jets larger than the Milky Way, and scientists think they kno (Original Post) Judi Lynn Nov 2023 OP
What happens to black holes when they die? keithbvadu2 Nov 2023 #1
Super fascinating!! Easterncedar Nov 2023 #2

Easterncedar

(3,469 posts)
2. Super fascinating!!
Wed Nov 22, 2023, 08:49 AM
Nov 2023

I’m late catching up on my reading, but this one really grabs my little mind. Thanks Judi Lynn!!

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