Astrophysicists from Princeton University Make Important Discovery About Black Holes
Astrophysicists from Princeton University have made an important discovery regarding black holes. They have found that energy near the black hole m87 is directed outward, not inside, putting an end to long-term disputes in the scientific community.
Black holes are known to capture everything that is nearby. However, it has now been revealed that this is not always the case. Eliot Cuaterte, a professor of astronomy at Princeton University, explains, “Although black holes are defined as objects from which nothing can escape, one of the amazing predictions of Einstein’s theory of relativity is that black holes can lose energy.”
Scientists have known since the 1970s that magnetic fields probably extract energy from rotating black holes, but the mechanism behind this process has remained unknown. Recently, researchers at Princeton University confirmed that the energy at the horizon of the events of the Black hole m87* is directed outward. This discovery suggests that the loss of rotational energy in the black hole is the source of powerful energy flows known as jets.
According to Alexander Lupsac, a former post-doctoral researcher at Princeton, these jets “look like Jedi’s light swords a million light years long” and can extend by a distance of 10 times the size of the Milky Way.
The results of their work have been published in the Astrophysical Journal. The article is authored by Andrei Chail, a researcher in the field of astrophysics, who is the first author, and co-author George Wong, both of whom are members of the Event Horizon Telescope and played a key role in the development of the models used to interpret black holes.
The team has observed that the direction of rotation of the magnetic fields around the black hole determines the polarization observed on the images of black holes. This allows them to draw conclusions about the direction of energy flow – from the black hole to the field or vice versa.
George Wong, a scientist from the Princeton Gravity Group, compares the energy emanating from the black hole m87* to an explosion equivalent to the Earth turning into TNT a thousand times a second for millions of years.
Scientists are confident in the connection between the flow of energy and the direction of magnetic fields, and they suggest that the energy actually comes from the black hole. This hypothesis will be tested further with the next generation of the Event Horizon Telescope.
Despite the convincing evidence presented in the study, scientists emphasize that they have not yet proven that the rotation