The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration discovers image of the black hole in polarised light by the astronomers around the world, including from Universiti Malaya (UM).
Dr. Juan Carlos Algaba Marcos from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, UM has been part of 300 scientists from around the world that involved in the data analysis and parameter survey for the calibration of the data and the imaging results.
“This is the first time ever that anyone has been able to obtain polarized light from such a tiny region around the black hole. This setup allowed the team to directly observe the black hole shadow and the ring of light around it, with the new polarised-light image clearly showing that the ring is magnetised.
“Light becomes polarised when it goes through certain filters, like the lenses of polarised sunglasses, or when it is emitted in hot regions of space that are magnetised. In the same way polarised sunglasses help us see better by reducing reflections and glare from bright surfaces, astronomers can sharpen their vision of the region around the black hole by looking at how the light originating from there is polarised. Specifically, polarisation allows astronomers to map the magnetic field lines present at the inner edge of the black hole,” he said.
“We are solving the mysteries of the universe here, we are discovering how the universe works. We hope that this discovery is going to motivate generations of young people, and inspire the future of the country,” he added.
The EHT collaboration, who produced the first ever image of a black hole, has revealed a new view of the massive object at the centre of the M87 galaxy: how it looks in polarised light. This is the first time astronomers have been able to measure polarisation, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of a black hole. The observations are key to explaining how the M87 galaxy, located 55 million light-years away, is able to launch energetic jets from its core.
On 10 April 2019, scientists released the first ever image of a black hole, revealing a bright ring-like structure with a dark central region — the black hole’s shadow. Since then, the EHT collaboration has delved deeper into the data on the supermassive object at the heart of the M87 galaxy collected in 2017. They have discovered that a significant fraction of the light around the M87 black hole is polarised.
Dr. Juan Carlos Algaba Marcos is part of the EHT that won the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The Breakthrough Prize, known as the "Oscars of Science," annually recognizes achievements in the Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics, disciplines that ask the biggest questions and seek the deepest explanations. Considered the world's most generous science prize, each Breakthrough Prize is $3 million.
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