The extremely hot matter surrounding black holes provides information about the physics of the cosmic object. Recent observations of a stellar-mass black hole called Cygnus X-1 reveal new details of the powerful jets shooting out from the accretion disks surrounding black holes.
The hot matter is heated to millions of degrees and glows in X-rays so researchers used measurement of the polarization of X-rays to test and refine models that show how black holes swallow matter, which eventually becomes some of the most luminous sources of light in the universe.
NASA Telescopes Help Solve the Mystery of Why Supermassive Black Holes Blaze So Brightly
Solving a 40-Year-Old Mystery
The polarization of cosmic objects is often used to investigate conditions within and around the object. However, scientists were unable to measure that polarization despite decades of research on the polarization of visible light. But this changed with the launch of Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), a few weeks before JWST was launched. As per IFL Science's report, its telescopes can measure the extent of polarization of X-rays that have been put to use on the black hole system Markarian 501.
Dr. Yannis Liodakis of the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO said that the IXPe helps solve a 40-year-old mystery and has finally put all pieces of the puzzle in place, creating a clear picture.
Markarian 501 supermassive black hole happens to have one of its jets of matter pointed toward Earth, which makes it extra bright despite its immense distance. As a blazer, Markarian 501 is expected to be bright in the X-ray spectrum as well as in ultraviolet and visible light.
IXPE showed for the first time that the black hole is a powerful X-ray emitter with 10% polarization or twice the amount seen at optical wavelengths. The pattern reveals that these magnetic fields are strong when the X-rays are produced but subsequently weaken.
Combining the observations of IXPE and other telescopes showed that a shock wave is helping power the jet that results in the magnetic field driving particles with terra electronvolt energies. Professor Alan Marscher from Boston University explains that the magnetic field gets stronger and energy particles get higher as the shock wave crosses the region.
Particles emit X-rays as they travel outward because they are extremely energetic. But they start to lose energy as they move farther outward in a turbulent region farther from the location of the shock. This causes them to release less-energetic light like the optical and radio waves.
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Cygnus X-1's Hot Matter Points to Earth
Earlier this month, NASA reported using the IXPE to find the flow of matter of the black hole in Cygnus X-1. Discovered in 1964, Cygnus X-1 was the first cosmic object ever identified as containing a black hole.
NASA telescopes teamed up to reveal new details of the configuration of hot matter surrounding the famous black hole in which the IXPE mission data reveals that the flow of matter toward the black hole's disk is more edge-on than previously thought. That means the edge of the disk is more pointed towards the direction of Earth.
Professor Henric Krawczynski, the lead author of the study from Washington University, said that previous X-ray observations of black holes only measured the arrival direction, time, and energy from the hot plasma. But IXPE does not only measure those things but it also measured the inner polarization that carries information about how X-rays were emitted.
Scientists noted that a better understanding of the geometry of the plasma surrounding a black reveals so much about the inner mechanisms of the cosmic object and how they accrete mass.
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