An unprecedented collaboration. Observations through the electromagnetic spectrum in radio, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays have evidenced the powerful impact of the supermassive black hole of the elliptical galaxy M87 in its surroundings, of which a few weeks ago we could see an image in polarized light (and that allowed to detect its magnetic fields).
Various institutions and telescopes around the world have combined their efforts to produce a multi-frequency panorama of the supermassive black hole residing in M87, offering a unique opportunity to better understand the properties of this historic supermassive black hole and the mechanisms that drive the jets. relativists associated with M87.
The beginning of the story emerged in April 2019, two years ago, when scientists published the first image of a black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Today, we have new results that promise to give us an unparalleled view of this black hole and improve the evidence for Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity .
19 observatories, ground and space, some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, have collected light across the entire spectrum. This is the most extensive simultaneous observation campaign ever conducted on a supermassive jet black hole.
“This unique set of data is crucial to our understanding of the physical conditions in the vicinity of one of the most massive black holes in our cosmic neighborhood,” says Stefanie Komossa, MPIfR astronomer, member of the team supporting multi-length observations. waveform of the EHT, and one of the main authors of this work published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The new study will allow anyone interested to examine all the information and use it for their own research . Each telescope offers different information about the behavior and impact of the 6.5 billion solar mass black hole at the center of M87, which is about 55 million light years from Earth.
“This incredible set of observations includes many of the best telescopes in the world,” explains Juan Carlos Algaba of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “This is a wonderful example of astronomers from around the world working together in the pursuit of science.”
The first results show that the intensity of the light produced by the material around the supermassive black hole of M87 was the lowest ever observed , which made it easier for us to see the ‘shadow’ of the black hole, in addition to being able to isolate the light from the regions near the event horizon of those tens of thousands of light-years away from the black hole.
This does not end here . This same week, for six nights, the EHT astronomers point to several supermassive black holes to continue delving into them: the one in M87 again, the one in our galaxy, Sagittarius A *, and several somewhat more distant black holes.
Referencia: J. C. Algaba et al. Broadband Multi-wavelength Properties of M87 during the 2017 Event Horizon Telescope Campaign, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2021). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/abef71
