EHT collaboration observes the jet of a black hole with the highest precision of all time

2020/04/17 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astrofisika

A year ago, the collaboration Event Horizon or EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) showed the first image of a black hole. Now, this collaboration has shown the jet produced by a black hole with the highest precision in history. The results have been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

They have seen the blast in a galaxy five billion light years away, in quasar 3C 279. This galaxy is classified as quasar because in its center an ultra-luminous energy source flashes. In fact, in the center there is a black hole with a mass one billion times greater than our Sun, and due to the immense forces that are generated when swallowing matter, two twins of plasma come out at an almost luminous speed.

New images obtained by synchronizing several radio telescopes around the world. Thus, with this huge virtual telescope, they have been able to analyze the jet with a precision of a year of light and continue to the accretion disk.

Although the jet was expected to be straight, they have seen it has a naughty shape at its base. On the other hand, it is observed that during the days that the observation lasted the details of the image are modified, probably due to the rotation of the accretion disc, the crushing and infiltration of the material. They are expected phenomena of drills, but never observed until now.