Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 March 31

                 M87's Central Black Hole in Polarized Light
     Image Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration; Text: Jayanne
                            English (U. Manitoba)

   Explanation: To play on Carl Sagan's famous words "If you wish to make
   black hole jets, you must first create magnetic fields." The featured
   image represents the detected intrinsic spin direction (polarization)
   of radio waves. The polarizationi is produced by the powerful magnetic
   field surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of
   elliptical galaxy M87. The radio waves were detected by the Event
   Horizon Telescope (EHT), which combines data from radio telescopes
   distributed worldwide. The polarization structure, mapped using
   computer generated flow lines, is overlaid on EHT's famous black hole
   image, first published in 2019. The full 3-D magnetic field is complex.
   Preliminary analyses indicate that parts of the field circle around the
   black hole along with the accreting matter, as expected. However,
   another component seemingly veers vertically away from the black hole.
   This component could explain how matter resists falling in and is
   instead launched into M87's jet.

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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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