We Finally Know How Black Holes Produce The Most Brilliant Light in The Universe
For something that emits no light that we can detect, black holes just love to cloak themselves in radiance.
Some of the brightest light in the Universe comes from supermassive black holes,
Among the brightest of these maelstroms of swirling hot material are galaxies known as blazars.
Scientists have finally figured out the mechanism producing the incredible high-energy light
Most of the galaxies in the Universe are built around a supermassive black hole.
A vast cloud assembles into an equatorial disk around the black hole,
a powerful new X-ray telescope called the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE),
It's the first space telescope that reveals the orientation, or polarization, of X-rays.
the telescope collected data on the X-ray light emitted by the blazar's jet.
The team soon noticed a curious difference in the X-ray light.
Future research will continue to observe Markarian 501, and turn IXPE to other blazars to see if similar polarization can be detected.