JET ENGINE: Astronomers have now zoomed in on the base of the jet emanating from Galaxy M87.
Image: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
-
The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
Read More »
Black holes, by definition, emit no light. They are unseeable.
But astronomers would like to get as close as they can by zooming in on the region immediately surrounding a black hole. That is the objective of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of linked radio telescopes around the globe.
An actual event horizon—the point beyond which light and matter alike become hopelessly lost to a black hole's pull—remains out of sight, but the telescope has now succeeded in piercing the veil of a nearby supermassive black hole to peer into unprecedented depths of its turbulent surroundings.
Researchers trained EHT radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California on the giant elliptical galaxy M87, some 54.5 million light-years away. The galaxy features a dramatic jet, thousands of light-years long, emanating from its center and thus, presumably, from the galaxy's black hole. In a study published online September 27 in Science, Sheperd Doeleman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory in Westford, Mass., and his colleagues report that the dish network has resolved the base of M87's jet. The size of the jet at that position, close to its origin, in turn allowed the researchers to deduce some of the most fundamental attributes of both the galaxy's behemoth black hole, which weighs in at a mass of 6.6 billion suns, and the swirling disk of matter surrounding it.
Outside the event horizon of a black hole orbits a disk of material pulled in but not yet consumed by the gravitational pull of the black hole. That accretion disk grows quite dense and hot as infalling material collides and compresses, emitting copious amounts of radiation in the process. Accretion disks can also accelerate particles into a jet of plasma that propagates outward at a substantial fraction of light speed.
Doeleman and his colleagues measured the base of the jet in M87 to ascertain the inner edge of stability within the black hole's accretion disk, beyond which matter quickly falls inward to its doom. That edge, the densest and fastest-moving part of the accretion disk, can fling particles outward with ease. "The jets that we see from M87 are likely launched from right around this region," Doeleman says.
The EHT, with its superior resolving power from the long baselines separating its individual sites, allowed the researchers to measure a size for the jet's footprint of just 5.5 times the black hole's Schwarzschild radius. (The Schwarzschild radius is the size below which a given mass cannot be compressed without collapsing into a black hole.) "We saw something that was just impossibly small, startlingly small," Doeleman says.
The size of the jet—and, by inference, the size of the innermost stable orbit within the accretion disk—implies that the black hole is spinning, and that the accretion disk is rotating in the same direction. A nonrotating black hole would feature a much wider jet, and an accretion disk spinning counter to the black hole's rotation would launch a fountain that was broader still.
In measuring the jet's footprint the researchers had to account for distortions, caused by the warped spacetime of Einstein's general theory of relativity, inherent to observations of such massive objects. Because of the distortion, a particle jet measured by Earth-based tools can appear larger than it actually is. "The black hole acts as its own lens," Doeleman says. "That's just because the black hole is bending the light rays like taffy."
Simply visualizing the event horizon is not the only goal of the project. A central aim is to peer into an astrophysical environment dominated by supermassive objects to see if gravity works as predicted. "If Einstein's theory is going to break down, it's probably going to be near a black hole," Doeleman says, before acknowledging that the reigning theory of gravity has survived countless challenges before. "It is never wise to bet against Einstein," he adds. "I think the bookies in Vegas give you very long odds. But you have to try."
Rights & Permissions
See what we're tweeting about
18 Comments
Add CommentI certainly agree with the concluding paragraph regarding gravitation. In fact, it seems that those having difficulty correctly describing the effects of gravitation as it related to large scale objects do so because they attempt to apply simple methods of approximation, often intended only for two-body problems (such as Kepler's empirical laws of planetary motion), to enormous aggregations of hundreds of billions of stars and other large scale objects of mass.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe is no need for modified gravity or compensatory dark matter, at least to account for the rotational dynamics of spiral galaxies. For more information please see:
"Inappropriate Application of Kepler's Empirical Laws of Planetary Motion to Spiral Galaxies Created the Perceived Galaxy Rotation Problem - Thereby Establishing a Galactic Presence for the Elusive, Inferred Dark Matter"
http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1419
John Matson writes (5th paragraph): "Outside the event horizon of a black hole orbits a disk of material pulled in but not yet consumed by the gravitational pull of the black hole. That accretion disk grows quite dense and hot as infalling material collides and compresses, emitting copious amounts of radiation in the process. Accretion disks can also accelerate particles into a jet of plasma that propagates outward at a substantial fraction of light speed."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it possible that the matter in the accretion disk of a black hole can never make it past the event horizon? In other words, black holes grow only by merging with other black holes.
Anyone have a simple explanation how plasma is spewing from the black hole while science tells us that nothing, not even light can escape from a black hole?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore correctly, general relativity states that nothing that has entered the event horizon of a black hole can escape its gravitation. The elements being ejected through relativistic jets never made it past the event horizon. Please see
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_jet#Relativistic_jet
If the accretion diks would be accreting permanently, would not it become black holish in itself in the long run?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI want to bet with Mr. Einstein regarding the gravitational lens around stars. One of my favorite pastimes since retiring is exercising and then floating quietly on the water watching the ever changing ripples and shadows forming on the pool-floor at 15 degrees angled sunlight as the light passes through the ripples it is reflected downward onto the pool bottom and seems to travel endlessly across the pool. Interestingly, the surface whorls that are impossible to see visually show up as swirling dark shadows with a burst of split light in or near the middle of the shadow. (That's my best description I can muster) I'm wondering if the world of light we see is in some way similar to the invisible swirl made visible made visible on the floor of the pool is like unto gravity?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, I was 5 yo when Albert died & don't do math, but I once read a comment in the journal Science by someone who I think does saying that the equations of general relativity describing the curvature of spacetime were remarkably similar to the equations describing fluid dynamics. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that the redirection of flow in the gradient curvature of spacetime, especially among interacting fields, might resemble the swirls, whorls & eddies seen in the refracted light at the bottom of your pool - at more 'massive' scales...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor an observer from a distant relativistic frame, matter may appear to not enter event horizon. But near the event horizon, in the absence of relativistic effects, high gravitational effects shall suck the matter within event horizon
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRelativity is based upon vacuum character of space implying emptiness of space with nil physicality. Therefore, comparison of curvature of space-time with eddies, swirls and whirls within a fluid does appear to be valid
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this+ & -/ woman & man/ right & left/ zygote = neutrality & equality among all living masses in our universe and beyond. A (non rotating black hole) would feature a much wider jet, and an accretion disk spinning counter to the black hole's rotation would launch a fountain that was broader still. Black holes are manipulated living space fabric, leading to another set of galaxies from which other life forms live. We are most certainly not the only beings in a vast selection of life. We (humans) are the only beings created in God's image. Thus the living word states, Deuteronomy 4:24. ☻
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe giant elliptical galaxy M87, some 54.5 million light-years away, classification above all to use the equation from the Complete Unified Theory.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Determination of distance:
1 light year = 9.4605 x 1017 cm , so 54.5x10^6 light tear = 5.159725x10^25 cm.
This distance near by 2 x (root of 2) x Pi^3 x Avo. No. = 5.28135x10^25 cm.
2. Determination of mass:
Both the galaxy's behemoth black hole, which weighs in at a mass of 6.6 billion suns,
Let mass of the sun = 1.8x10^33 gram. So, 6.6x10^9 x 1.8x10^33 gm = 1.188x10^43 gm.
3. We can determine the emission of energy as from the equation:
For Black Hole = Emission of energy = mass of electron x 1.188x10^43 gm / Pi^5 x Avo. No. x mass of Alfa particle ^2 = 4.28938x10^31 gm = 3.855105x10^53 erg = 3.855x10^45 Jule.
4. Then Schwarzschild radius = 2 G M / c^2 = 6.369096751 times larger. Where, the reference value is 5.5, this proves that that the equation for Black Hole = Emission of energy = mass of electron x 1.188x10^43 gm / Pi^5 x Avo. No. x mass of Alfa particle ^2 has some impotency.
The name of this equation is “Unification of Physics” written in my book Complete Unified Theory (page-424, 1998). We can calculate all to use this equation from the particle to the universe.
Nirmalendu Das.
Email: nirmalgopa@gmail.com
Dated: 01-10-2012.
I also happened upon a reference you might find interesting:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisR.C. Tolman (1939). "Static Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations for Spheres of Fluid". Physical Review 55 (4): 364–373. Bibcode 1939PhRv...55..364T. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.55.364
http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v55/i4/p364_1
http://authors.library.caltech.edu/4362/
(free access)
Does the angular momentum of light entering the black hole cause the swirling motion?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy what means can a black hole interact with other matter? Spacetime, by definition, contains no matter. So the alleged black hole can interact with nothing because associated spacetime is empty by definition. So there is no matter outside the black hole by initial hypothesis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe black hole is inconsistent with Theory of Relativity. Alleged singularity of black hole is infinitely dense. Now SR forbids infinite density because that implies a material body can acquire speed of light in vacuum (or infinite energy), which violates the fundamental premise of Special Relativity. Thus, Relativity forbids infinitely dense point-mass singularities and hence forbids black holes. Consequently, all alleged bh phenomena are meaningless.
Instead of black holes, galaxies possess plasmoids as their driving engines. Gamma and X-ray observations of our own galactic core reveal a plasma torus there. Prodigious electromagnetic energy from the galaxy is stored in the matter trapped in the compact plasmoid. The plasmoid therefore exhibits immense mass, derived from the well-known E = mc2 equivalence. So the gravity of the plasmoid accelerates stars to the high speeds mistakenly attributed to an imaginary and unphysical black hole.
Dec 12, 1956, NYTimes: "Physicist 'Creates' Universe in a Test Tube; Atom Gun Produces Galaxies and Gives Clues to Creation"
10,000 Amp current passed through titanium wires, instantly vaporizes them creating a puff of ionized gas (a plasma) travelling at 450,000 mph. Prof. Bostick noted the plasma formed distinctive shapes resembling galaxies at various stages of aging and formation. Bostick called his laboratory produced plasma entities, "plasmoids".
Over 30 years, Bostick, Physics Prof at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, investigated plasmoids further and found that "not only the morphology [shape] but the controlling dynamic elements, electric and magnetic fields, are the same in the laboratory as in the galactic phenomena".
Bostick's theory describes galaxies as analogous to series-wound homopolar generators ..Furthermore, Bostick suggested that such a model could produce a concentration of current perpendicular to the galactic disk that would be a cosmic-sized "plasma focus" – a device that produces high energy, relativistic (near the speed of light) particle beams, or jets.
Extreme curvature of space-time culminating in the creation of a BH originates from extreme gravitational force due to presence of large massive object. As the gravitational force shall increase, BH will suck more and more matter within its event horizon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo how do you interpret that there is no matter in a BH?
What is the structure of plasmoids and how they are formed in galaxies?
Besides consuming and devouring all that in its path, a black hole seem to work like a engine. As the practical stream is a axel through the black hole driving it like a wheel. Maybe this could be used to power America to make electric?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if the thrust from these jet is really causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe simple answer is that the gasses which when compressed and heated and then becomes the plasma, had not yet actually ever entered the "black hole." Further, it's because material headed for the black hole's gravitational well, approaches in such a manner as to acquire tremendous velocity via a rapidly increasing angular momentum until it finally reaches a point at which some of it essentially reaches escape velocity, and so then able to travel away from the rapidly decreasing gravitational pull of the black hole, instead of as it did at first, toward it...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this