Although scientists have long held that the black hole’s spinning is what drives the cosmic jets, they have yet to find any clear evidence to support this theory.
In a first, scientists have found the first concrete proof of a black hole’s rotation.
As the scientists concentrated on the supermassive black hole that is situated in the center of the nearby Messier 87 (M87) galaxy, the studies provided fresh insights into mysterious celestial objects. The Messier 87 (M87) galaxy’s shadow had been captured on camera by the Event Horizon Telescope.
M87 has tremendous jets that were propelled into intergalactic space from the poles nearly at the speed of light, just like other supermassive black holes.
Cosmic jets are thought to be propelled by black holes spinning, however there has never been any concrete proof of this theory.
Dr. Kazuhiro Hada, co-author of the study and director of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, said in an interview with The Guardian that “whether or not this black hole is spinning has been a central concern among scientists after the success of black hole imaging in this galaxy with the Event Horizon Telescope. Currently, uncertainty has replaced anticipation. Yes, this enormous black hole is rotating.
According to Dr. Ru-Sen Lu, the lead author of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, the scientific community is aware that jets are ejected from the area surrounding black holes.
Lu continued, “But we still don’t fully understand how this happens, so we need to see the jet’s origin as close to the black hole as we can.
A black hole in the galaxy M87, 55 million light years from Earth, is 6.5 billion times bigger than the Sun. According to the researchers, behind the black hole is an accretion ring of gas and dust spinning on the rim of the cosmic sinkhole.
Scientists determine the reason why black holes spin
They claim that some of these particles enter the black hole and vanish there. However, a little portion is ejected from the black hole’s poles at a speed that is faster than 99.999% the speed of light.
The jet, which was discovered to precess close to a central location at the black hole’s edge, was found to repeat an 11-year cycle as per the study. This observation revealed a misalignment between the black hole’s spin axis and the accretion disk, which caused the jet to travel in the manner of a spinning top.
The discovery of this precession, according to the authors, “improves our understanding of the nature of supermassive black holes by providing unequivocal evidence that the supermassive black hole in M87 is indeed spinning.”
UCL astrophysicist Dr. Ziri Younsi stated in a statement to The Guardian, “That’s fascinating because it’s telling us that it can only precess if the black hole has non-zero spin. It is a very subtle but powerful proof of spin.