On this first historical image of a black hole, we can observe the accretion disk around the black hole in the center of the galaxy M87.

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EHT

A major step to better understand these mysterious cosmic monsters.

Astronomers who revealed the first black hole to the eyes of the world managed to capture the image of the swirling magnetic field near its edge, according to a study released Wednesday.

The first image of the gigantic black hole lodged in the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy (M87), located 55 million light years away, was unveiled on April 10, 2019, as a dark circle in the middle of a flaming halo.

“It's incredibly satisfying!

"

The historic image, produced by the international collaboration Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), was the most direct evidence ever obtained for the existence of black holes, objects so massive and compact that nothing escapes them, not even the light.

Two years later scientists at the EHT know more about the mechanics of the supermassive object, which is several billion times the mass of the Sun.

Their work is published in

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

.

We discover a new image of the object in polarized light - as through a filter - allowing astronomers to "better understand the physics behind the image seen in April 2019", underlined Ivan Marti-Vidal, coordinator of a EHT working groups.

“We observe for real what the theoretical models predicted, it's incredibly satisfying!

», Welcomed Frédéric Gueth, deputy director of the Institute of Millimeter Radio Astronomy (Iram), whose telescope is part of the EHT network.

" A fight "

The polarization revealed the structure of the magnetic field located at the edge of the black hole, and made it possible to produce an accurate image of its shape.

This extremely powerful magnetic field opposes a resistance to the force of gravity of the black hole: "a kind of equilibrium occurs between the two forces, like a fight, even if in the end it is gravity that wins", explains l 'astronomer.

Magnetic force would not only extract matter, but also eject powerful jets of light at immense speeds extending at least 5,000 light years beyond the galaxy itself.

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