I am in awe of the objects in the Universe. There are also observations that cause those feelings.
One of them is OJ 287. A blazar is a type of galaxy where the center of the universe is shooting out light across the spectrum. It shines with the light of a trillion Suns, outshining the rest of the galaxy. It is 3.5 billion light years away. Keep a decent chunk of the Universe between you and this monster.
One of the most massive black holes in the universe has a mass of over 18 billion times that of the Sun, making it one of the most massive possible. A vast disk of material called an accretion disk swirls around it, gas and dust heated to unbelievable temperatures, that heat creates the energies we see from the galaxy.
The central monster is 150 million solar mass, and another supermassive black hole is in close proximity to it. The path takes it within 500 billion kilometers of the black hole, which is over 100 times the distance from the Sun to Neptune. The second black hole plunges directly through the disk like a rocket. An immense blast of radiation is created when it does.
Who would not be in awe of such forces?
Over a hundred years ago, OJ287 was discovered and has been studied ever since. The new observations made by a team of astronomer reveal more information about the inner workings of the galaxy than ever before, and as interesting as the science is, the observations themselves are amazing.
Interferometry is a process that was used to make the observations. It uses a complex process to be able to combine the abilities of radio telescopes across the world, in essence creating a single linked telescope with the same resolution and ability to distinguish details in an object as one the size of the distance between them. I have written about this many times, including the first ever shadow of a black hole, a red giant star, and exoplanets around other stars.
This technique can link up radio telescopes around the world. They added in the Spektr-R 10-meter radio telescope, which is in the vicinity of the Earth. The elliptical path takes it close to our planet and far out as the Moon. The baseline between telescopes from the size of the Earth to one 15 times larger was increased. It is difficult to comprehend that some of the observations have a resolution of 12 microarcseconds. It is like being able to see a US quarter from the Moon.
Hubble has a resolution of less than a second. The observations are 40,000 times sharper. Yegads. Their images have a resolution of 50 microarcseconds. It is amazing.
The observations show a beam of matter and energy being blasted away from the black hole. The magnetic fields at the center of the accretion disk are so strong that they can lift material away and fling it out at a fraction of the speed of light. We are looking down at the black hole because one of its jets is almost directly at us. If it were aimed away from us, we would only see lower energy light.
The observations show that the jet is weird. The higher the resolution of the image, the more it appears to curve. What could be causing this?
One idea is that the black hole is spinning fast, and the disk doesn't align with it. The black hole drags the fabric of spacetime around it as it rotates. This would cause the inner parts of the disk to jiggle like a spinning top. The jet would point in a different direction over time. Another idea is that the second black hole plunging through the accretion disk at high speed could cause the jet to precesss.
It was found that the magnetic fields in the jet wind were similar to the ones seen in black holes closer to us.
Black holes' ability to interact with matter around them are not well known. You might think that the physics is complex. Observations like these are a big step in probing the inner innermost regions of these monsters, just above The Point of No Return, and every time one is made we step a bit closer to understanding.
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