{"id":2925,"date":"2019-04-12T12:05:43","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T09:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/?p=2925"},"modified":"2019-04-18T15:42:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T12:42:27","slug":"black-hole-image-makes-history-nasa-telescopes-coordinated-observations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/?p=2925","title":{"rendered":"Black Hole Image Makes History; NASA Telescopes Coordinated Observations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Using the Event Horizon Telescope, scientists obtained an image of the black hole at the center of galaxy M87, outlined by emission from hot gas swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon.
Credits: Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nA black hole and its shadow have been captured in an image for the first\n time, a historic feat by an international network of radio telescopes \ncalled the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)<\/a>. EHT is an international collaboration whose support in the U.S. includes the National Science Foundation<\/a>.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A black hole is an extremely dense object from which no light can \nescape. Anything that comes within a black hole\u2019s \u201cevent horizon,\u201d its \npoint of no return, will be consumed, never to re-emerge, because of the\n black hole\u2019s unimaginably strong gravity. By its very nature, a black \nhole cannot be seen, but the hot disk of material that encircles it \nshines bright. Against a bright backdrop, such as this disk, a black \nhole appears to cast a shadow.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stunning new image shows the shadow of the supermassive black \nhole in the center of Messier 87 (M87), an elliptical galaxy some 55 \nmillion light-years from Earth. This black hole is 6.5 billion times the\n mass of the Sun. Catching its shadow involved eight ground-based radio \ntelescopes around the globe, operating together as if they were one \ntelescope the size of our entire planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an amazing accomplishment by the EHT team,\u201d said Paul Hertz,\n director of the astrophysics division at NASA Headquarters in \nWashington. \u201cYears ago, we thought we would have to build a very large \nspace telescope to image a black hole. By getting radio telescopes \naround the world to work in concert like one instrument, the EHT team \nachieved this, decades ahead of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To complement the EHT findings, several NASA spacecraft were part of a\n large effort, coordinated by the EHT\u2019s Multiwavelength Working Group, \nto observe the black hole using different wavelengths of light. As part \nof this effort, NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/a>,\n Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Neil Gehrels Swift \nObservatory space telescope missions, all attuned to different varieties\n of X-ray light, turned their gaze to the M87 black hole around the same\n time as the EHT in April 2017. NASA\u2019s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope \nwas also watching for changes in gamma-ray light from M87 during the EHT\n observations. If EHT observed changes in the structure of the black \nhole\u2019s environment, data from these missions and other telescopes could \nbe used to help figure out what was going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chandra X-ray Observatory close-up of the core of the M87 galaxy.
Credits: NASA\/CXC\/Villanova University\/J. Neilsen <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While NASA observations did not directly trace out the historic \nimage, astronomers used data from NASA\u2019s Chandra and NuSTAR satellites \nto measure the X-ray brightness of M87\u2019s jet. Scientists used this \ninformation to compare their models of the jet and disk around the black\n hole with the EHT observations. Other insights may come as researchers \ncontinue to pore over these data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many remaining questions about black holes that the \ncoordinated NASA observations may help answer. Mysteries linger about \nwhy particles get such a huge energy boost around black holes, forming \ndramatic jets that surge away from the poles of black holes at nearly \nthe speed of light. When material falls into the black hole, where does \nthe energy go? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cX-rays help us connect what\u2019s happening to the particles near the \nevent horizon with what we can measure with our telescopes,\u201d said Joey \nNeilsen, an astronomer at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, who led \nthe Chandra and NuSTAR analysis on behalf of the EHT\u2019s Multiwavelength \nWorking Group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chandra X-ray Observatory close-up of the core of the M87 galaxy.
Credits: NASA\/CXC\/Villanova University\/J. Neilsen <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NASA space telescopes have previously studied a jet extending more than 1,000 light-years away from the center of M87<\/a>.\n The jet is made of particles traveling near the speed of light, \nshooting out at high energies from close to the event horizon. The EHT \nwas designed in part to study the origin of this jet and others like it.\n A blob of matter in the jet called HST-1, discovered by Hubble \nastronomers in 1999, has undergone a mysterious cycle of brightening and dimming<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chandra, NuSTAR, Swift and Fermi, as well as NASA\u2019s Neutron star \nInterior Composition Explorer (NICER) experiment on the International \nSpace Station, also looked at the black hole at the center of our own \nMilky Way galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, in coordination with EHT.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting so many different telescopes on the ground and in space to \nall look toward the same celestial object is a huge undertaking in and \nof itself, scientists emphasize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScheduling all of these coordinated observations was a really hard \nproblem for both the EHT and the Chandra and NuSTAR mission planners,\u201d \nNeilsen said. \u201cThey did really incredible work to get us the data that \nwe have, and we\u2019re exceedingly grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neilsen and colleagues who were part of the coordinated observations will be working on dissecting the entire spectrum of light coming from the M87 black hole, all the way from low-energy radio waves to high-energy gamma rays. With so much data from EHT and other telescopes, scientists may have years of discoveries ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A black hole and its shadow have been captured in an image for the first time, a historic feat by an international network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). EHT is an international collaboration whose support in the U.S. includes the National Science Foundation. A black hole is an extremely dense object from which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3016,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions\/3016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}