M87's supermassive black hole and a massive jet together seen for the first time by The Global mm-VLBI Array
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This GMVA+ALMA image shows M87’s jet and black hole shadow together for the first time, giving scientist’s the context needed to understand where the powerful jet formed. The new observations also revealed that the black hole’s ring, shown in the inset, is 50% larger than scientists previously believed. Credit: R. Lu and E. Ros (GMVA), S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
Scientists studying the supermassive black hole at the heart of the M87 galaxy have revealed the origins of the monster’s powerful jet and imaged the jet and its source together for the first time. What’s more, the observations have revealed that the black hole’s ring is much larger than scientists previously believed. The observations published in Nature.
The Global mm-VLBI Array (GMVA) united radio
telescopes around the world to produce these new results, including the
National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and
Green Bank Observatory (GBO), Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
(ALMA), Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), and Green Bank Telescope (GBT).
The SMBH (supermassive
black hole) at the center of the M87 galaxy is the most
recognizable in the Universe. It was the first black hole to be captured in an
image, created by the Event HorizonTelescope (EHT) and made public in 2019. The image of its dense, dark core
framed by an amorphous glowing ring made international headlines.
“M87 has been observed over many decades, and
100 years ago we knew the jet was there, but we couldn’t place it in context,”
said Ru-Sen Lu, an astronomer at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, leader
of a Max Planck Research Group at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and lead
author of the new paper. “With GMVA, including the premier instruments at NRAO
and GBO, we’re observing at a lower frequency so we’re seeing more detail— and
now we know there are more details to see.”
Eduardo Ros, an astronomer and the Scientific
Coordinator for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) at the Max Planck
Institute for Radio Astronomy added, “We’ve seen the ring before, but now we
see the jet. This puts the ring in context— and it’s bigger than we thought. If
you think of it like a fire-breathing monster, before, we could see the dragon
and the fire, but now we can see the dragon breathing the fire.”
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Scientists
observing the compact radio core of M87 have discovered new details about the
galaxy’s supermassive black hole. In this artist’s conception, the black hole’s
massive jet is seen rising up from the center of the black hole. The jet was
born from energy created by the magnetic fields surrounding the spinning core
of the black hole and winds rising up from the black hole’s accretion disk. The
observations represent the first time that the jet and the black hole have been
imaged together, giving scientists new context into the compact radio core of
M87. These observations also revealed that the black hole’s ring is 50% larger
than previously believed.
Using many different telescopes and instruments gave the team a more complete view of the structure of the supermassive black hole and its jet than was previously possible with EHT, and all of the telescopes were required to paint a full picture. While VLBA provided a full view of both the jet and the black hole, ALMA allowed the scientists to resolve M87’s bright radio core, and create a sharp picture. The sensitivity of the GBT’s 100-meter collecting surface enabled astronomers to resolve both the large and small-scale parts of the ring and see the finer details.
“The original EHT imaging revealed only a
portion of the accretion disk surrounding the center of the black hole. By
changing the observing wavelengths from 1.3 millimeters to 3.5 millimeters, we
can see more of the accretion disk, and now the jet, at the same time. This
revealed that the ring around the black hole is 50 percent larger than we
previously believed,” said scientist Toney Minter, GMVA coordinator for the GBT.
Not only are the parts of the black hole bigger
than shorter wavelength observations previously revealed, but it is now
possible to confirm the origin of the jet. This jet was born from the energy
created by the magnetic fields surrounding the spinning core of the black hole
and winds rising up from the black hole’s accretion disk.
“These results showed—for the first time—where
the jet is being formed. Prior to this, there were two theories about where
they might come from,” said Minter. “But this observation actually showed that
the energy from the magnetic fields and the winds are working together.”
Harshal Gupta, NSF Program Officer for the
Green Bank Observatory, added, “This discovery is a powerful demonstration of
how telescopes possessing complementary capabilities can be used to
fundamentally advance our understanding of astronomical objects and phenomena.
It is exciting to see the different types of radio telescopes supported by NSF
work synergistically as important elements of the GMVA to enable the big
picture view of M87’s black hole and jet.”
Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
(NRAO)
