Mesmerizing new images of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way reveal a first look at the matter-gobbling behemoth's magnetic field. The stunning snaps suggest that the cosmic void, named Sagittarius A* , may be harboring hidden jets that are shooting superheated matter into our galaxy.
"What we're seeing now is that there are strong, twisted, and organized magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy," Sara Issaoun, an EHT astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. The researchers hope this discovery can help them learn more about how Sgr A* feeds on the matter encircling it, she added.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.M87* became the first black hole to ever be directly photographed when the EHT snapped it in 2017. Since then, those photos have been enhanced by AI and been followed up with additional photos, including a polarized light snap that revealed the black hole's magnetic field.
In April 2023, EHT captured the first-ever image of black hole jets around M87*, which were later found to be around 10 times longer than the Milky Way's diameter. Similar jets were also spotted by the EHT around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy NGC 1275, also known as Perseus A, this February.