Revealing the Magnetic Field Swirling Around Our Galaxy’s Black Hole through a New Perspective

This is a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy that we have never seen before. The image reveals a swirling magnetic field around Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), suggesting it may be producing jets of high-energy material that astronomers have not yet seen.

This photo was taken by a network of observatories around the world operating as a single giant telescope called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). In 2022, the first images of Sgr A* were produced, revealing light emanating from swirling hot plasma set against the dark background of a black hole's event horizon. There, light cannot escape the extreme gravity.

Now, EHT researchers Jiri Yunshi The researchers from University College London measured how this light is polarized, or the direction of the electromagnetic field, and showed the direction and strength of the magnetic field around Sgr A*.

This image is very similar to the magnetic field of M87*, the first black hole studied by EHT. Given that M87* is about 1,500 times more massive than Sgr A*, this suggests that supermassive black holes may have similar structures regardless of their size, Yunshi says.

One major difference between M87* and the black holes in our galaxy is the absence of visible high-energy jets visible from Sgr A*. This lack has long puzzled astronomers, but the fact that Sgr A* has a magnetic field like M87* suggests that our galaxy's black hole may also have jets. It suggests.

“There are very interesting hints that there may be additional structures,” Yunshi says. “I think something very exciting could be happening at the center of the galaxy, and we need to track these results.”

This makes sense given other evidence for jets that may have existed long before the galaxy's history, such as Fermi bubbles, large balls of X-ray-producing plasma above and below the Milky Way. Masu.

In addition to revealing potential hidden jets, the properties of magnetic fields also solve other astrophysical mysteries, such as how particles like cosmic rays and neutrinos are accelerated to ultrahigh energies. This could help solve the problem, Yunshi said. “Magnetic fields are the basis of all of this. Anything that yields further insight into how black holes and magnetic fields interact is of just fundamental importance to astrophysics.”

Yunshi and his colleagues hope to use a larger telescope network and more advanced equipment to take more images of Sgr A*, which will help them understand the nature of the magnetic field and how it directs the jet. This will deepen your understanding of what is being generated. EHT plans to begin these observations in April, but processing the data could take several years.

References: Astrophysics Journal LetterDoi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2df0 &DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2df1