EHT demonstrates that the central black hole of the Milky Way has a powerful magnetic field

2024/04/03 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astrofisika
• Astronomia

Two years ago, the international project Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) presented the first image of the black hole amidst the Sagittarius Milky Way A* (Sgr A*). Before, in 2019, the same group showed the first image of a black hole, the black hole M87*. This black hole was also analyzed by polarized light and proved to have a powerful magnetic field in 2021. They've now studied Sgr A* through polarized light, and they've seen it has a similar magnetic field. So this may be the typical structure of these kinds of black holes.

It is a significant discovery, as Sgr A* is a thousand times smaller than M87* and its mass is a thousand times smaller than it is. And in the two of you, you've seen that you have strong spiral wrapped magnetic fields that return to the center of the black hole the jets of matter and energy that the black hole itself emits.

The structural comparison of the two black holes, their appearance and their differentiation, will provide astrophysicists with valuable information, so they announce their intention to continue researching. In addition, one of the EHT telescopes, ALMA, will be renewed to extend the resolution. This will give you more details of Sgr A*. Among other things, they want to see if it has a strong jet like the M87*. In fact, in the image taken with polarized light, they suspect this jet should be, but could not confirm (confirmed in M87*).

In addition, they expect to receive images of other black holes in the galaxy and inside moving images, movies. That is why the EHT group is expected to provide news in the future.