First evidence of black hole ‘collapse region’

Einstein got an important prediction about black holes correct, according to an international team led by researchers from Oxford University’s Department of Physics. Their study, published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, uses X-ray data to test a key prediction of Einstein’s theory of gravity, and for the first time, there is no “collision region” around black holes. provide observational evidence of It exerts some of the strongest gravitational force ever seen within a galaxy. The new discovery is part of a wider investigation into the unsolved mysteries surrounding black holes by astrophysicists from the Oxford Department of Physics. The study, “Continuous Radiation from Collision Regions in Black Hole Disks,” focuses on small black holes relatively close to Earth and uses X-ray data collected by NASA’s space-based NuSTAR and NICER telescopes. are doing. Later this year, a second team from Oxford University hopes to move closer to filming the first film about a larger, more distant black hole as part of a multi-million dollar European effort. Unlike Newton’s theory of gravity, Einstein’s theory states that once particles get close enough to a black hole, it is impossible for them to safely follow a circular path, but rather they rapidly fall towards the black hole at speeds close to the speed of light. and says it will cause a conflict. Region name. Oxford’s study was the first to focus deeply on this area, using his X-ray data to better understand the forces generated by black holes. Dr Andrew Mummery said: “This is the first observation of how plasma far from the outer edge of a star ends up falling into the center of a black hole, a process that takes place around 10,000 light years away. “It occurs in many systems,” he said. Professor in the Department of Physics who led the research. “What’s really exciting is that galaxies have a lot of black holes, and we now have a powerful new technique that can be used to study the strongest known gravitational fields.” “Einstein’s theory predicted that this final collision would occur, but this is the first time we have demonstrated that it actually happens.” Think of it like a river turning into a waterfall. So far we have seen rivers. This is your first view of the waterfall. We believe this represents an exciting new development in black hole research and will allow us to study this last region around black holes. Only then can we fully understand gravity. “This final drop of plasma occurs at the very edge of the black hole, showing that matter responds to gravity in the strongest possible way.” Astrophysicists have been trying to understand what’s happening near the surface of a black hole for some time by studying the disk of matter that surrounds it. There is a final region in spacetime called the collision region, where it is impossible to stop the final descent into the black hole and the surrounding fluid is essentially doomed. Astrophysicists have debated for decades whether it is possible to detect so-called plunging regions. A team at the University of Oxford has spent the last few years developing this model, and recently published research demonstrates the first confirmed evidence found using data from an X-ray telescope and the International Space Station. doing. While this study focuses on small black holes close to Earth, a second research team from the Oxford Department of Physics will build a new telescope, the African Millimeter Telescope, that will significantly improve our ability to directly image black telescopes. It is part of a European initiative. hole. More than €10 million in funding has already been secured, part of which will support several first-time PhD students in astrophysics at the University of Namibia, working closely with the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. This new telescope will make it possible for the first time to observe and record large black holes at the center of our galaxy and beyond.

source: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1160