A team of downtown astronomers Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge has shown that the black hole in the galaxy Messier 87 ejects particles out of each other faster than 99% of the speed of light, according to a study published in the magazine “The Astrophysical Journal.”
“It’s the first time such extreme speeds are recorded in the jet of a black hole with X-ray data, ”said Ralph Kraft, one of the study’s authors, in a statement.
The researchers used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to analyze the M87 * black hole, famous since the Event Horizon Telescope got the first direct image of a black hole in this galaxy.
As you know, when a body is trapped by a black hole, the material turns around and falls towards it, but part of the matter is thrown out in powerful beams known as jets or ‘jets’.
To identify the velocity, astronomers studied the regions of the jet and compared the changes in the X-ray spectrum with data taken over five years.
After analyzing the data, the astronomers concluded that the particles in the jet are being driven by the black hole to the maximum limit of cosmic speed.
“One of the unbreakable laws of physics is that nothing can move faster than light”, said Brad Snios, another co-author of the study.
In addition, the scientists studied the presence of two knots or bumps in that great “jet”. The observations suggest that They have moved faster than the speed of light. This phenomenon occurs when an object that travels almost at the speed of light moves in the direction in which the observer is, which makes it appear that it travels even faster than light.
“Actually, we have not broken the laws of physics, we have found an example of a fascinating phenomenon that is called superluminal movement,” said Snios.
It was recently announced that the European Space Agency (ESA) wants to focus two of its main scientific missions to study black holes. The first one, with Athena, the largest X-ray telescope built to date.
The second will be with LISA, a constellation of three satellites that observes gravitational waves.
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