Simulation image of the black hole at the center of the M87 elliptical galaxy (Photo : Avery E. Broderick (University of Waterloo / Perimeter Institute))
Using the Event Horizon Telescope, researchers have discovered the source of an energy blast in a galaxy known as M87, and it's a black hole 7 billion times as massive as the sun, with a width equal to that of a the solar system.
In the study published in the journal Science, astronomers observed the energy jet, which extends thousands of light-years, circling around the black hole, traveling almost at the speed of light. This discovery would have been impossible without investment in new, high powered telescopes. MIT astronomer Sheperd Doelman told Space.com that "by making a virtual Earth-sized telescope that links radio dishes from Hawaii to California, we were able to achieve the necessary magnification power." For reference, M87 is 54 million light-years from Earth.
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"It's remarkable to me to think that we have the ability to measure the size of the region where matter orbits a black hole just before it disappears from our universe forever," said Doeleman.
Prior to this development in telescopic technology, scientists were limited to theorizing about the connection between black holes and the "relativistic jets" of energy in the universe. Thanks to Event Horizon, Scientists were able to calculate that the size of the region that the jet stemmed from is 750 times the distance from the Earth to the sun.
The MIT astronomer observes that "the size of the jet launch point was so small that the best explanation is that the black hole has to be spinning and the orbiting matter has to be moving in the same direction as the black hole is spinning -think of the planets orbiting in the same direction as the sun is spnning."
Yet, this is just the beginning. "Our result is just the tip of the iceberg," says Doeleman. "We've used just three stations in a global Earth-sized virtual telescope to peer deep inside a relativistic jet. We are about to add critical new stations to this Event Horizon Telescope, which will bring us closer to imaging a black hole boundary than we have ever been before."
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