Researchers have found magnetic fields very close to black holes

Researchers have taken another step forward in examining a black hole: for the first time, they have been able to detect magnetic fields in its immediate vicinity and make them visible.

This is very important for researchers, the director of the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, Zensus, said. One can now better understand how the luminous structures originate near a black hole. The data comes from the “Event Horizon Telescope” (EHT), for which scientists have linked different radio telescopes around the world. In 2019, EHT made the first image of a black hole – a scientific sensation at the time. Since then, the data has continued to be evaluated and the first image of the magnetic field distribution has been found.

In black holes, the mass of a few to several billion from the Sun is compressed into a very small region. Due to the sheer gravity, even light cannot escape from the immediate environment, hence the name. Black holes can arise, for example, when burning giants collapse under their own weight. The exact origin of the super-mass perforations as on the M87 has not yet been elucidated.

This message was broadcast on March 25, 2021 on Deutschlandfunk.