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Twisted magnetic field
April 5 , 2024
234 days
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- Astronomers have detected a strong and organised magnetic field twisted in a spiral pattern around the Milky Way's supermassive black hole.
- The structure of the magnetic field emanating from the edge of the black hole called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*.
- It closely resembles one surrounding the only other black hole ever imaged.
- A larger one residing at the centre of a nearby galaxy is called Messier 87, or M87.
- This indicates that strong magnetic fields may be a feature common to black holes.
- The magnetic field around the M87 black hole, called M87*, enables it to launch powerful jets of material into space.
- This indicates that while such jets have not been detected to date around Sgr A*, they might exist - and might be observable in the near future.
- Sgr A* possesses 4 million times the mass of our sun and is located about 26,000 light-years - the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km) - from Earth.
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