And though I .... understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; ...and have not Love, I am nothing
1 Corinthians 13:2
1 Corinthians 13:2
"A team from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Valencia has managed to observe the black hole of the active galaxy PKS1830-211 right during the most violent gamma-ray energy event ever registered in that source.
Scientists have discovered very rapid changes in the structure of its magnetic field that confirm the predictions of the main models of gamma-ray production in black holes. The phenomenon, observed through the ALMA telescope, contributes new data to the study on the origin of the most energetic radiation in the Universe.
Some of the most massive and distant black holes in the Universe emit an enormous amount of extraordinarily energetic radiation, called ‘gamma rays.’
This type of radiation occurs, for example, when mass is converted into energy during fission reactions that run nuclear reactors on Earth. But in the case of black holes, gamma radiation is even more energetic than that obtained in nuclear reactors and is produced by very different processes; there, the gamma rays are created by collisions between light rays and highly energetic particles, born in the vicinity of black holes by means of mechanisms still poorly understood.
As a result of these collisions between light and matter, the energetic particles give almost all their momentum to the light rays and turn them into the gamma radiation that ends up reaching Earth.
The astronomical scientific community suspects that these collisions occur in regions permeated by powerful magnetic fields subjected to highly variable processes, such as turbulence and magnetic reconnections – magnetic fields that fuse together releasing an astonishing amount of energy – that could be occurring in the jets of matter expelled by black holes.
But probing these magnetic fields so far from Earth – some of these black holes are billions of light-years away – requires a very sensitive instrumentation and to find the exact moment when the emission of high energy takes place.
In a recently published article in the journal Astronomy &
Astrophysics, the scientists report observations of the black hole called PKS1830-211.
These observations demonstrate that the magnetic fields in the region where the most energetic particles of the black-hole’s jet are produced were changing their structure notably in a time interval of only a few minutes. “This implies that magnetic processes are originating in very small and turbulent regions, just as the main models of gamma-ray production in black holes predict, which relate turbulence to gamma radiation,” explains Iván Martí-Vidal. “On the other hand, the changes that we have detected took place during a very powerful gamma-ray episode, which allows us to robustly relate them to the high-energy emission. All this brings us a little closer to understanding the origin of the most energetic radiation in the Universe,” he adds."
SciTechDaily
This type of radiation occurs, for example, when mass is converted into energy during fission reactions that run nuclear reactors on Earth. But in the case of black holes, gamma radiation is even more energetic than that obtained in nuclear reactors and is produced by very different processes; there, the gamma rays are created by collisions between light rays and highly energetic particles, born in the vicinity of black holes by means of mechanisms still poorly understood.
As a result of these collisions between light and matter, the energetic particles give almost all their momentum to the light rays and turn them into the gamma radiation that ends up reaching Earth.
The astronomical scientific community suspects that these collisions occur in regions permeated by powerful magnetic fields subjected to highly variable processes, such as turbulence and magnetic reconnections – magnetic fields that fuse together releasing an astonishing amount of energy – that could be occurring in the jets of matter expelled by black holes.
But probing these magnetic fields so far from Earth – some of these black holes are billions of light-years away – requires a very sensitive instrumentation and to find the exact moment when the emission of high energy takes place.
In a recently published article in the journal Astronomy &
These observations demonstrate that the magnetic fields in the region where the most energetic particles of the black-hole’s jet are produced were changing their structure notably in a time interval of only a few minutes. “This implies that magnetic processes are originating in very small and turbulent regions, just as the main models of gamma-ray production in black holes predict, which relate turbulence to gamma radiation,” explains Iván Martí-Vidal. “On the other hand, the changes that we have detected took place during a very powerful gamma-ray episode, which allows us to robustly relate them to the high-energy emission. All this brings us a little closer to understanding the origin of the most energetic radiation in the Universe,” he adds."
SciTechDaily
