Neither vampires nor myths – this royal castle in France hides the darkest, most terrifying secrets ever documented
Goodbye to myths about old age—the 102-year-old neurologist reveals the real enemy of longevity, and it’s not what you think
Ford changes everything – this is how the engine technology presented by the brand works, extending oil change intervals to 19,000 miles
A supermassive black hole is shocking scientists! From Northwestern University, some scientists have seen something surprising about the supermassive black hole’s rotation speed located in the center of the
M87 galaxy
. Thanks to astronomical observation’s advanced techniques and space telescopes, two things were clear: key predictions about general relativity and the importance of this finding for space science.
Many things have been said about black holes
, and this discovery is another positive aspect for science, because scientists can continue studying mysterious aspects of the universe and test theories like Einstein’s general relativity theory.
It might seem very complex, but we will explain everything so clearly. So, let’s see what’s happening in the M87 galaxy.
Black holes definition
These are one of the most mysterious elements of the universe. There is a region where gravity is so intense that nothing can escape from it, not even light! This is the most known fact about these mysterious elements in society, they are so powerful they absorb anything.
What’s the discovery about?
Scientists have found something strange in the supermassive black hole in a galaxy called Messier 87 (M87). Before scientists saw a peculiar feature of this element of the galaxy, it was known for its huge mass being 6,500 million times bigger than the Sun’s. How crazy is that? Also, it was the first black hole to be directly captured in 2019 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
Going back to the strange thing scientists found, the black hole is spinning so fast, 80% of the maximum speed allowed by physics.
The fast spinning
You might be thinking how this is possible. Well, first of all, you should know black holes have accretion disks, huge rings of gas, dust and other materials spinning around them. This ends the popular belief of these mysterious elements directly absorbing everything near them.
Scientists found one of the sides of the disk was much brighter, which was explained by the Relativistic Doppler Effect. When something moves very fast towards you, its light is brighter and the opposite happens when this thing moves far from you. This theory was key to measure how fast the material was spinning around the black hole. The result was around 93,205 miles per hour, which is extremely fast but still in the limits of physics.
Measuring something invisible
It is impossible to directly see black holes because they can even absorb light. That’s why scientists studied what happens in their surroundings by using EHT images from 2017 and 2018, changes in their rings’ brightness and the polarisation of light – which gives signs about magnetic fields near black holes.
M87 jet
From now on, we may refer to the M87’s black hole as M87*. The M87* ejects a powerful jet of particles spread in space for thousands of light years. Now, it’s been known this happens as a consequence of how the black hole ‘’feeds’’. Basically, the energy material that falls into it is the same in the M87* jet.
Importance of this finding
Thanks to this discovery, we will be able to better understand the most mysterious elements of the universe, black holes. Also, the EHT telescope could be used in other black holes studies.
What’s more, the M87* is considered a kind of ‘’natural laboratory’’ to test the most extreme physics laws. Like Einstein’s general relativity, large magnetic fields and the behaviour of gas when reaching speed near light.
So many important aspects can be studied from this finding, let’s hope more scientists can get more information from future studies on the universe and its different elements. Idon’t know if you know, but these studies are very useful for us on Earth.
