The new data released by a team of hundreds of international scientists provides a more comprehensive understanding of the supermassive black hole in the heart of the M87 galaxy and the system it powers.
A dramatic video announcing the findings promises an “unparalleled perspective” on the black hole and suggests that the observations could also help improve tests on the general theory of relativity by prolific mathematician Albert Einstein.
To measure and observe the behavior of the black hole, the researchers gathered information from 19 observatories using images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Chandra X-ray Observatory, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Nuclear Spectroscopic Matrix (NuSTAR), Close the Gamma Ray Space Telescope and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
In 2019, scientists launched the first image of a black hole in the galaxy M87 – 55 million light-years from Earth – using EHT.
A co-author of a report on the new data sets published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory Kazuhiro Hada, told NASA that the image informed their work.
“I knew the first direct image of a black hole would be revolutionary,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “But to make the most of this remarkable image, we need to know all we can about the behavior of the black hole at that time, observing the entire electromagnetic spectrum.”
For example, the space agency said in March that the Chandra X-ray Observatory found evidence of a jet of particles from a rapidly growing supermassive black hole.
Astronomers have studied jets traveling at almost the speed of light over long distances, and NASA said the M87’s jets produce light across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, suggesting that each black hole has a unique pattern based on the intensity of the light it produces.
“Identifying this pattern provides a crucial perspective on the properties of a black hole (for example, its rotation and energy power), but this is a challenge because the pattern changes over time,” NASA said in a statement.
The different telescopes used in this coordinated enterprise help to characterize black holes and compensate for the variability of the spectrum.
According to NASA, the observations – made from the end of March to the middle of April 2017 – mark the largest simultaneous observation campaign ever undertaken on a supermassive black jet hole.
“The combination of data from these telescopes and current (and future) EHT observations will allow scientists to conduct important lines of research in some of the most significant and challenging fields of study in astrophysics,” the agency said. showed the intensity of electromagnetic radiation produced by the material around the supermassive black hole of the M87 was the lowest ever witnessed.
This week, EHT scientists are once again analyzing the black hole in the M87, as well as a few other black holes removed. Several radio telescopes have been added to the network since 2017.
Technical issues hindered the 2019 campaign, and the 2020 campaign was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Space.com.
“With the publication of this data, combined with the resumption of observation and improved EHT, we know that there are many interesting new results on the horizon,” co-author Mislav Baloković of Yale University said in a NASA statement.