EHT CollaborationPolarized-light image of the magnetic field around the edges of the Sagittarius A* black holeEHT Collaboration
First pictured in 2022 and now seen in polarized light (with a single direction), the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, dubbed Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), which is roughly 27,000 light-years from Earth and has 4 million times the mass of the Sun, has strong magnetic fields spiraling out from its edges. The discovery suggests that all black holes may have strong magnetic fields. The magnetic field of Sgr A* is similar in structure to the black hole at the center of galaxy M87 (M87*), which is a thousand times larger and more massive than Sgr A*. The magnetic fields around M87* allow it to emit powerful jets of matter back into space, leading to speculation that Sgr A* does the same. To record the images of Sgr A*, an international consortium of 300 researchers from North and South America (including Brazil), Europe, Africa, and Asia used eight large telescopes to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which was scheduled to observe Sgr A* in April, with the images becoming sharper as it incorporates new devices (The Astrophysical Journal Letters, March 27).
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