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While black hole M87*\u2019s magnetic fields appeared to spiral in one direction in 2017, they settled in 2018 and reversed direction in 2021. (EHT Collaboration via SWNS)<\/p>\n
By Talker<\/p>\n
By Dean Murray<\/p>\n
Space scientists are puzzled after discovering a black hole<\/a> behaving in an unexpected way.<\/p>\n New images have revealed the supermassive black hole<\/a> at the center of galaxy M87 flipping its gravitational field.<\/p>\n (EHT Collaboration via SWNS)<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n The data from the Event Horizon Telescope<\/a> (EHT) collaboration shows that while the bright, ring-shaped shadow of the black hole remained steady, the magnetic fields threading the surrounding plasma dramatically changed direction, reversing their spiral.<\/p>\n This discovery challenges existing theoretical models and highlights a turbulent, evolving environment at the black hole\u2019s<\/a> edge, where magnetic forces govern how matter falls in and jets of energy are launched outwards.<\/p>\n These new observations, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics<\/a>, are providing fresh insight into how matter and energy behave in the extreme environments surrounding black holes.<\/p>\n (EHT Collaboration via SWNS)<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n Located about 55 million light-years away from Earth, M87 harbors this supermassive black hole<\/a>, more than six billion times the mass of the Sun.<\/p>\n The EHT, a global network of radio telescopes acting as an Earth-sized observatory, first captured the iconic image of M87\u2019s black hole shadow in 2019.<\/p>\n Now, by comparing observations from 2017, 2018, and 2021, scientists have taken the next step towards uncovering how the magnetic fields near the black hole<\/a> change over time.<\/p>\n (EHT Collaboration via SWNS)<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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