Researchers have Revealed an Amazing New Image of Our Galaxy’s Black hole

(CTN News) – Scientists have shown an incredible new photograph of the black hole in the center of the galaxy.

The object, known as Sagittarius A*, is displayed in polarised light for the first time, marking a significant breakthrough.

It provides a new perspective on the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The swirling image depicts the magnetic field structure surrounding the black hole, implying that it may contain a hidden jet.

The scientists created the image as part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) cooperation. That resulted in the first image of a black hole, which was taken in 2019 of the one at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy, and another in 2022 of the one at the center of our Milky Way.

Comparing Milky Way’s Black Hole to Messier 87’s: Surprising Similarities

Our galaxy’s Milky Way is a thousand times smaller than Messier 87. However, the new image reveals they may be quite similar: in addition to sharing a shared appearance, they appear to have identical magnetic field structures, implying that those processes are homogeneous among black holes.

“What we’re seeing now is that there are strong, twisted, and organised magnetic fields near the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy,” said Sara Issaoun, Nasa Hubble Fellowship Program Einstein fellow at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian and project co-leader.

“Along with Sgr A* having a strikingly similar polarisation structure to that seen in the much larger and more powerful M87* black hole, we’ve learned that strong and ordered magnetic fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them.”

Dr. Ziri Younsi of University College London, a co-author on the publications and a member of the EHT project, said, “It is very exciting to see the first polarised images of the black hole in the heart of our galaxy.”

“These findings provide much more information about the magnetic fields surrounding the black hole, improving our capacity to model accreting black holes in the future.

“It’s surprising that the polarisation structure of Sgr A* is so similar to that of the M87 black hole, which we know has a massive relativistic jet.