Astronomers have found the first direct evidence that a black hole is spinning. The observations provide new insights into the enigmatic celestial object and focus on the supermassive black hole at the center of the neighboring Messier 87 (M87) galaxy. Like other supermassive black holes, M87 also has powerful jets that are launched from its poles into intergalactic space at almost the speed of light.
Scientists believe that the rotation of a black hole powers these cosmic jets, but until now there has been no direct evidence of this. The black hole was imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope, The Guardian reported.
Dr. Ru-Sen Lu, the lead author from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, said the scientific community knows that jets are ejected from the region around black holes. “But we still don’t fully understand how this happens,” Lu said, adding that they had to observe the jet’s origin as close to the black hole as possible.
M87, located 55 million light-years from Earth, is home to a black hole 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun. Beyond the black hole is an accretion disk of gas and dust swirling on the precipice of the cosmic sinkhole. Some of this material, according to the scientists, will fall into the black hole and disappear forever. However, a small portion will be ejected from the black hole’s poles at more than 99.99% of the speed of light.
Research published in Nature used observations of M87 by a global network of radio telescopes from 2000 to 2022. Scientists noticed an eleven-year recurring cycle in the jet, which orbited a central point on the edge of the black hole. . It indicated a misalignment between the black hole’s axis of rotation and the accretion disk, causing the jet to move like a top.
According to the American space agency NASA, the first photo of a black hole was obtained in 2019. The supermassive black hole, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, is believed to be located at the center of the elliptical galaxy M87, about 55 million light-years from Earth.
What is a black hole?
NASA describes a black hole as a “dense, compact object whose gravity is so strong (up to a certain distance) that nothing can escape, not even light.” Black holes are said to be formed when massive stars collapse at the end of their evolution. Gravity is extremely strong because matter (mass) is squeezed into a small space.