Scientists Confirm First Direct Evidence of a Spinning Black Hole

Scientists Confirm First Direct Evidence of A Spinning Black Hole

Astronomers have discovered the first direct evidence of a spinning black hole, focusing on the supermassive black hole in the M87 galaxy

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M87's black hole features powerful jets that shoot out from its poles near the speed of light

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These cosmic jets have long been believed to be powered by the rotation of the black hole, but there was no direct evidence until now

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The black hole in M87 was imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope

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Dr. Ru-Sen Lu from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory emphasized the need to observe the jet's origin as close to the black hole as possible

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M87's black hole is an enormous 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun and is surrounded by an accretion disk of swirling gas and dust

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Some material from the accretion disk falls into the black hole, while a fraction is ejected from its poles at incredible speeds

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Research published in Nature used data from a global network of radio telescopes from 2000 to 2022 and discovered an 11-year cycle in the jet's movement

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This cycle indicated a misalignment between the black hole's spin axis and the accretion disk, causing the jet to move like a spinning top

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The first image of a black hole was obtained in 2019, located at the center of the M87 galaxy, about 55 million light-years from Earth

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