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The now iconic image of M87’s monster black hole – an object described as “the most perfect macroscopic objects in the universe, the only elements of their construction are our concepts of space and time” – captured in April 2019 by the Event Horizon team highlighted the eerie orange glow of its shadow.
The image, the EHT team reported, marked the culmination of years of work undertaken by a team of 200 scientists at 59 institutes across 18 countries, drawing on data collected by eight telescopes whose locations travel from Hawaii to the South Pole, creating the equivalent of a lens the size of planet Earth that is 4,000 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Shadow Knows – Visible Universe History Film
The image of the juggernaut captured the light of the entire universe wrapping around the object in a series of interlocking rings, astrophysicist Peter Galison at Harvard said. “Looking into these rings we are looking at light from all over the visible universe, we are seeing further and further into the past, a film, so to speak, of the history of the visible universe.
“Hall of Mirrors” – Orange glow around colossal M87 black hole reveals history of observable universe
“Revealed by a whim of alignment”
Today, the Hubble Space Telescope astronomers announced that “through an alignment quirk, scientists could glimpse the structure of the disk around the black hole in the nearby galaxy IC 5063, first brought to the attention of the astronomer of the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard. by a discovery by a lone citizen astronomer, so radically different from the Earth-sized EHT team of 200 scientists.
The Hubble Space Telescope observed a collection of narrow light rays and dark shadows radiating from the extremely bright center of the active galaxy. created when the object attracts the stars and gas into a disc that swirls around them, generating a stupendous amount of energy, producing a powerful jet of light from an infallible superheated gas.
Telltale beams
This Hubble image of the IC 5063 core shown at the top of the page reveals a mixture of light rays and dark shadows emanating from the blazing core of its supermassive black hole. Astronomers suggest that a ring of dusty material surrounding the black hole could cast its shadow into space. The Hubble site reports that “some of the light enters the interstices of the dust ring, creating rays of light that resemble the projectors accompanying a Hollywood debut movie. These revealing beams offer clues to the distribution of material near the black hole that is the source of the shadow play. “
“The Shadow Knows” – EHT Image Reveals Anatomy of M87’s Gargantuan Black Hole
Retraced from the Galaxy
A team of astronomers, led by Peter Maksym of the Center for Astrophysics (CfA), have traced the rays to the galaxy’s core, the location of an active supermassive black hole, where the monster object frantically feeds on infallible material, producing a powerful jet of light from the superheated gas. Although the researchers have developed several plausible theories for the light show, reports the CfA, “the most intriguing idea suggests that a ring-shaped inner tube, or torus, of dusty material surrounding the black hole casts its shadow in the space.
According to Maksym’s scenario, the dust disk around the black hole does not block all the light. Spaces in the disc allow light to diffuse, creating brilliant cone-shaped rays similar to the fingers of light sometimes seen at sunset on Earth. However, the rays in IC 5063 occur on a much larger scale, spanning at least 36,000 light years.
Projecting light beams far from the galaxy
Some of the light hits dense spots in the ring, casting the shadow of the ring into space. These shadows appear as dark finger shapes interspersed with light rays. These beams and shadows are visible because the black hole and its ring are tilted laterally with respect to the plane of the galaxy. This alignment allows the light beams to extend far outside the galaxy.
This interplay of light and shadow offers a unique insight into the distribution of matter surrounding the black hole. In some areas, the material may look like scattered clouds. If this interpretation is correct, the observations can provide an indirect probe of the mottled structure of the disc.
“I’m more excited about the shadow of the torus idea because it’s a really cool effect that I don’t think I’ve seen in the footage before, although it has been speculated,” said Maksym. “Scientifically, it shows us something that is difficult – usually impossible – to see directly. We know this phenomenon should be happening, but in this case we can see the effects across the galaxy. Knowing more about the geometry of the torus will have implications for anyone trying to understand the behavior of supermassive black holes and their environments. As a galaxy evolves, it is shaped by its central black hole. “
The study of the torus is important because it channels matter towards the black hole. If the “shadow” interpretation is correct, the dark rays provide indirect evidence that the IC 5063 disk might be very thin, which is why light escapes all around the structure.
Observations of similar black holes by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected X-rays escaping from holes in the torus, making the structure appear like Swiss cheese. The holes can be caused by the disc tightening by internal forces, causing it to warp, Maksym said. “It is possible that the deformation creates spaces large enough for some of the light to pass through them, and as the torus rotates, beams of light could sweep the galaxy like lighthouse beams through the fog,” he said. he added.
Fascinating example of a solitary citizen discovery
In a fascinating example of a discovery by a solitary citizen astronomer, Judy Schmidt, an artist and amateur astronomer based in Modesto, Calif., reports the Harvard CfA, discovered the dark shadows when she reprocessed the Hubble galaxy exhibits in December 2019. Schmidt regularly plots the Hubble Archives for interesting observations that it can transform into beautiful pictures. She shared these images on her Twitter feed with her many followers, including Peter Maksym.
“I noticed the dark rays almost immediately after opening the file in Photoshop and started enhancing them to make sure what I thought I was seeing was there. I couldn’t see them in the archival thumbnails or in the stretched image preview in FITS Liberator, ”Schmidt said, adding that when she first saw what appeared to be shadows, she said to himself, “It’s not possible, is it?” In his first tweets about the phenomenon, Schmidt asked his followers, “Are these cones that I’m trying to see real?” and “What are they?” It is an active galaxy with a supermassive black hole in the middle. Does it cast shadows the size of a galaxy? Or are they just streams of stars?
It didn’t take long for Maksym and other scientists to notice the tweet and start guessing, Harvard CfA reports, which ultimately led to the formation of the research team and the discovery.
“Judy has a keen eye for what seems strange, which, as in this case, can have important scientific implications. In December, she noticed ‘dark rays’ extending from the core of galaxy IC 5063 and tweeted to her followers asking if they could be something of interest, ”said Maksym, whose interest was immediately stung since he was already working on the same galaxy. from a different scientific perspective. “Several of us stepped in and started speculating on the cause of the rays, and we really had no idea at first. When you read the Twitter feed, you can see how the ideas played out in real time and turned into this truly unusual research. “
“Older images from ground telescopes may have shown clues of this type of structure, but the galaxy itself is such a mess you’d never guess that’s what happens without Hubble,” explained Maksym. “Hubble has crisp images, is sensitive to pale things, and has a field of view large enough to image the entire galaxy.”
The Daily Galaxy, Sam Cabot, via Harvard CfA and the Hubble site
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