New data released by a team of hundreds of international scientists provides a more comprehensive understanding of the supermassive Black Hole at the heart of galaxy M87 and the system it powers.
A dramatic video announcing the findings provides “unparalleled insight” into black holes and shows that the observations could also help improve tests of mathematician Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
To measure and observe the behavior of these black holes, the researchers gathered information from 19 observatories, using imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), Fermi Outer Space Telescope. Gamma Ray Space and Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
In 2019, scientists released the first-ever image of a Black Hole in galaxy M87 – 55 million light-years from Earth – using EHT.
A co-author of a report on the new data set published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Kazuhiro Hada, told NASA the images have informed their work.
“We knew that the first live images of the Black Hole would be groundbreaking,” he said in a Wednesday release. “But to get the most out of this incredible image, we need to know all we can about the behavior of the blackhole at that time by observing the entire electromagnetic spectrum.”
For example, the space agency said in March that the Chandra X-ray Observatory had found evidence of a burst of particles emanating from a fast-growing supermassive Black Hole.
Astronomers have studied jets traveling at nearly the speed of light across great distances and NASA says that jets from M87 emit light across the electromagnetic spectrum, suggesting that each black hole has a unique pattern based on the intensity of the light it produces.
“Identifying this pattern provides important insight into the nature of the blackhole (for example, its spin and energy output), but it is a challenge because the pattern changes over time,” NASA said in the statement.
The various telescopes used in this coordinated project help characterize black holes and compensate for spectrum variability.
According to NASA, the observations were made from late March to mid-April 2017 – marking the largest simultaneous observation campaign ever conducted on the supermassive Black Hole by jet.
“The combination of data from this telescope, as well as current (and future) EHT observations, will enable scientists to carry out important investigations into some of the most significant and challenging areas of astrophysical study,” the agency said, noting that the first results indicate radiation intensity. The electromagnetic radiation generated by the material around the M87 supermassive Black Hole is the lowest ever witnessed.
This week, EHT array scientists spotted another black hole in M87 as well as several other distant black holes. 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 release of this data, combined with the resumption of observations and enhanced EHT, we know many exciting new results are on the horizon, co-author Mislav Baloković of Yale University, said in the NASA release.