A new image of the M87 black hole offers a glimpse into one of the most powerful and mysterious objects in the universe.
This new image is the first independent evidence of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy.
Using an extensive array of telescopes, scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration have created an even clearer image of M87.
The new images show how the bright ‘shadow’ of this monstrous black hole has shifted over time – something predicted by Einstein’s theories.
Dr. Ziri Younsi, a black hole physicist at UCL who worked on the new image, says this shows the black hole is ‘active and feeding’.
Scientists have revealed the second photo of the black hole M87, which was created based on observations from 2018 (shown right). The first image (left) was created based on observations from 2017 and released to the public in 2019
The new images show how the brightest part of the black hole’s shadow has shifted about 30 degrees as the ring of matter around the event horizon ‘wobbles’ as it spins
In 2019, researchers revealed the very first images of a black hole, captured in 2017.
Or rather, because no light can escape the gravitational pull of a black hole, the scientists created an image of the bright halo that surrounds the void.
With a mass of 6.5 billion times that of the Sun, M87 pulls in all the matter around it with incredible force.
Before this matter disappears beyond the Event Horizon – the point beyond which nothing can escape – it becomes so hot that it begins to glow with radiation.
Using a series of radio telescopes located around the world, scientists were able to capture the radiation emitted by this cloud of superheated gases.
The black hole itself actually remains hidden in the shadow, which you can see in the center of the glowing ring.
This artist’s impression shows what M87 might look like. A disk of superheated gases revolves around the black hole, while a beam of radiation is projected into space at both poles
This latest image was created from data captured in 2018, a year after the original image was recorded.
Using an even larger telescope array, including the enormous Greenland telescope, the researchers managed to capture a higher resolution image.
This not only proves that the original image was not a fluke, but it also helps confirm some previous predictions.
In both images you can see that part of the ring is brighter than other parts.
Dr. Younsi explained, “The brightest part of the ring appears brighter because the material is probably moving toward us, but it could also be where the material is more strongly magnetized.”
But in the year between observations, this brightest point has shifted about 30 degrees to a 5 o’clock position.
“This shift is something that was predicted in 2019 and it is wonderful to observe now,” says Dr. Younsi.
Dr. Britt Jeter, a postdoctoral researcher at the Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan, said: ‘The emission from the turbulent, messy accretion disk around the black hole will cause the brightest part of the ring to wobble around a common center.
This was the very first photo of a black hole ever released. The existence of the bright shadow confirmed Einstein’s theories of relativity, which predicted that it would be seen as a result of gravitational lensing.
“The amount of fluctuation we see over time is something we can use to test our theories about the magnetic field and plasma environment around the black hole.”
Lower resolution images taken over four and a half years show the brightest part of the ring in constant motion.
Another important observation is that the black hole’s shadow has not grown.
Although the disk was expected to move, Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that it should stay the same.
Because M87’s mass and distance will not change significantly over a lifetime, the gravitational lens around the black hole should remain consistent.
These observations are an important confirmation of Einstein’s theories.
The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration is a network of radio telescopes around the world. By adding the Greenland Telescope (labeled GLT), the researchers were able to create a higher-resolution image of the black hole
The partnership with Event Horizon Telescope hopes that by adding more telescopes to its array, it can get an even higher resolution image in the future.
The ultimate goal is to create an array sensitive enough to reveal the details of the event horizon.
This allows scientists to learn more about the black hole’s mass and spin and test theories using a real subject.
The researchers made successful observations of M87 in 2021 and 2022 and plan to make another observation in the first half of 2024.
These future observations should be even clearer than this last image.