Physicists Finally Determine That Black Hole M87 Is Spinning
The first photo ever captured of a black hole was taken by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration back in 2019. The black hole is called Messier 87 and it was a momentous achievement for astronomers. Now, after years of analysis, experts say they've discovered something new about it
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:03 This is the first photo ever captured of a black hole, taken by the Event Horizon
00:08 Telescope collaboration back in 2019. The black hole is called Messier 87 or
00:13 M87 and it was a momentous achievement for astronomers. Now after years of
00:17 analysis, experts say they've discovered something new about it. It spins.
00:22 Astrophysicist and study co-author Kazuhiro Hata says the determining
00:26 whether or not it spins was a leading query amongst astronomers. So how did
00:30 they figure it out? Especially since nothing, not even light, can exit after it
00:33 has passed the black hole's event horizon? Well they instead looked at M87's
00:37 massive jet, this believed to be radiation and particles, funneled away
00:41 from the black hole along its magnetic field lines. Researchers found that over
00:45 an 11-year period, the jet would alter its angle by about 10 degrees and then
00:48 return to its original position. That wobbling effect indicates a spinning
00:52 point of origin, the black hole itself. Experts believe that most black holes
00:56 spin due to observing space-time distortion around them and that's likely
01:00 all due to the speed at which they rotate, oftentimes extremely close to the
01:04 speed of light.
01:07 (upbeat music)