Exciting radio images of radiation emanating from a large black hole have helped astronomers confirm that “small” black holes work in the same way as large black holes.

The Event Horizon Telescope, a global network of radio telescopes, captured details of a giant black hole in the heart of the nearby Radio Galaxy Centaurus A.

In 2019, when the giant star phenomenon Messier 87 was photographed, the same team drew the first direct image of a black hole.

A team of astronomers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany directed a telescope into large plasma jets coming from the center of the Centaurus galaxy, 13 million light-years from Earth.

Data show that the plasma emitted by the backhole is brighter at the edges than at the center, which is also seen in other black hole jets, but it was never clear.

They say the new images and data collected will allow high-resolution direct imaging of the black hole using future space telescopes.

Researchers have found that their observations are consistent with what is expected from Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and suggest that the largest supermassive black holes are “extended versions” of smaller black holes.

Centaurus A has a black hole with a mass of 55 million suns at its center, and the supermassive black hole at the center has been studied in detail, appearing in X-rays and radio wavelengths due to the flow of relativity.

Centaurus A, a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy, feeds on gas and dust attracted by massive gravity.

This process releases large amounts of energy, and the galaxy becomes “active.” It is located on the edge of the black hole.

However, it escapes within seconds to capture some of the surrounding particles and explodes into space at speeds approaching the speed of light. One of the most attractive and get-together features of galaxies, these jets are born from these escaped particles.

To better understand this process, astronomers have to rely on different models of how they behave near a black hole. They do not know exactly how jets are thrown from the center of a galaxy or how they propagate through large scales of host galaxies without scattering.

The Event Horizon Telescope aims to solve this mystery and learn more about black holes, as well as the edges of jets that appear brighter than the midpoints.

“We are now able to reject theoretical jet models that cannot reproduce this light,” said Matthias Caddler of the University of Wrzburg in Germany.

The position of the black hole during radiation was determined by the new telescope (EHT) observation of Centurus A’s jet emission.

Based on this location, the researchers hope to be able to depict the central black hole of Centaurus A for future observations of low wavelength and high resolution.

This requires the use of space satellite observatories because the data from Earth telescopes are not high enough.

“New results show that EHT provides a treasure trove of information about the rich diversity of black holes, and that is yet to come,” said Hino Folk, an EHT board member and professor of astronomy at Radbord University.

To observe Centaurus A, the EHT collaboration used the Very Long Basic Interferometer (VLBI), a technology used to illustrate the black hole in the M87.

Together, an alliance of eight telescopes from around the world created the Virtual Event Horizon Telescope. More than 300 researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America are involved in the EHT collaboration.

This finding supports the idea that giant black holes are broader versions of their lighter competitors.

The results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Source: Daily Mail

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