A recent image shows a jet with a corkscrew-like structure. The black hole in the center of the galaxy is 8,000 light-years away. Sophia Dagnello, the NRAO/AUI/NSF has an image credit.
New ground-based telescope views show that a jet ejected from a black hole has a corkscrew-like structure.
The black hole is located at the center of a large elliptical galaxy called M 87. The black hole is about 6.5 billion times larger than the sun and shoots out a stream of material.
Astronomers found a corkscrew-shaped magnetic field that stretches nearly 3,300 light-years from M87's central black hole using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. According to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, this is the longest magnetic field yet detected in a jet.
There are black holes in the universe.
The structure of the magnetic field in the jet was revealed for the first time by using high-quality VLA images at several different radio wavelengths. The material in this jet has a double helix.
The researchers used observations from the VLA to determine the strength of the magnetic field across different parts of the jet, as well as the alignment of radio waves emitted from the jet's magnetic field structure.
The co-author of the study said that the magnetic fields are close to the black hole, and that they play a very important role in getting material into a narrow jet. We didn't expect to find a strong field so far out.
The corkscrew-shaped magnetic field lines extend 3,300 light-years from the central black hole. The jet of energy is propelled by a magnetic field around the black hole. VLA observations show that the M87 jet is about 8,000 light-years long.
The new observations suggest that instabilities in the flow of material may cause higher pressure. This could cause the magnetic field lines to be more ordered at the extreme distances seen in the M87 observations.
The double-helix structure seen in the recent observations of M87 is believed to be caused by the interaction between the magnetic field and the unstable flow of material in the galactic jet.
The Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Spain's Jose L. Gomez said that M87 is an excellent target for study. The clues it gives us can help us understand the phenomenon.
Their findings were published in a journal.
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