The NASA telescopes involved in this observation campaign included the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
From the EHT’s now iconic image of M87, a new video takes viewers on a journey through the data of each telescope. The video shows data on many factors of ten in scale, both of wavelengths of light and physical size. The series begins with the EHT image of the black hole in M87 released in April 2019 (the data was obtained in April 2017). It then moves through images of other radio telescope arrays from around the world and moves outward into the field of view during each step. (The scale for the width of the squares is given in light years in the right-hand corner). Next, the view changes to telescopes that detect visible light (Hubble and Swift), ultraviolet light (Swift) and X-rays (Chandra and NuSTAR). The screen is divided to show how these images, covering the same amount of air at the same time, compare with each other. The series ends by showing what gamma ray scopes detect on the ground and Fermi in space from this black hole and its ray.
Each telescope provides different information about the behavior and impact of the 6.5 billion solar mass of black hole in the center of M87, which is located approximately 55 million light-years from Earth.
‘There are several groups trying to see if their models are a match for these rich observations, and we are excited to see the whole community using this public dataset to help us deepen the connections between black holes and their better understand rays, ”said co-author Daryl Haggard of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
The data was collected by a team of 760 scientists and engineers from nearly 200 institutions in 32 countries or regions, using observatories funded by agencies and institutions around the world. The observations were concentrated from the end of March to mid-April 2017
“This incredible series of observations contains many of the best telescopes in the world,” said co-author Juan Carlos Algaba of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “This is a wonderful example of astronomers around the world working together in the pursuit of science.”
The first results show that the intensity of electromagnetic radiation produced by material around M87’s supermassive black hole was the lowest ever seen. It provided ideal conditions for studying the black hole, from regions near the opportunity horizon to tens of thousands of light-years.
The combination of data from these telescopes and current (and future) EHT observations will enable scientists to conduct important lines of inquiry into some of the most important and challenging fields of study of astrophysics. Scientists, for example, plan to use this data to improve the tests of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Currently, the main obstacles to these tests are uncertainty about the material that revolves around the black hole and is blown away in rays, especially the properties that determine the released light.
A related question addressed by today’s study relates to the origin of energetic particles called ‘cosmic rays’, which are constantly bombarding the earth from outer space. Their energy can be a million times higher than what can be produced in the most powerful accelerator on earth, the Large Hadron Collider. The enormous jets launched from black holes, such as those shown in today’s images, are considered the most likely source of cosmic rays with the highest energy, but there are many questions about the details, including the exact locations of the particles. be accelerated. . Because cosmic rays produce light through their collisions, gamma rays with the highest energy can determine this location, and the new study indicates that these gamma rays are unlikely to be produced near the horizon of events – at least not in 2017. A key to resolving this debate will be compared to the observations from 2018 and the new data collected this week.
“The understanding of the particle acceleration is very important for our understanding of the EHT image as well as the jets, in all their ‘colors’,” said co-author Sera Markoff of the University of Amsterdam. These radiators succeed in exporting energy released through the black hole to scales larger than the host system, such as a large power cable. Our results will help us calculate the amount of force carried and the effect that the black hole’s rays have on its environment. ”
The release of this new treasure trove of data coincides with the EHT’s observation run in 2021, which uses a global range of radio dishes, the first since 2018. Last year’s campaign was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the previous year was suspended. due to unforeseen technical problems. This week, EHT astronomers are once again targeting the supermassive black hole in M87, the one in our galaxy (called Sagittarius A *), along with six more black nights in the distance. Compared to 2017, the array has been improved by adding three more radio telescopes: the Greenland Telescope, the Kitt Peak 12-meter telescope in Arizona and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France.
“With the release of these data, combined with the resumption of observation and an improved EHT, we know that many exciting new results are at hand,” said co-author Mislav Baloković of Yale University.
The Astrophysical Journal Letter describing these results is available here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/abef71.
For more information on NuSTAR, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/main/index.html