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Science Real Science is the study of the natural world. It deals with the fundamental particles of which the universe is made..

The magnetic field outside
our black hole has been
studied for the first time

We're a step closer to understanding how
the black hole at the centre of our galaxy
works, with astrophysicists in the US
announcing that they've directly observed
the magnetic fields just outside its event
horizon for the first time ever.
That's a big deal, because it's these
magnetic fields that are thought to power
supermassive black holes. "These magnetic
fields have been predicted to exist, but no
one has seen them before," said one of the
researchers, Shep Doeleman , from the
Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for
Astrophysics. "Our data puts decades of
theoretical work on solid observational
ground."
So why are magnetic fields so important to
a black hole? While most of us think about
black holes as huge galactic vacuum
cleaners that suck in anything that gets too
close, in reality, the ones at the centre of
galaxies such as our own are more like
cosmic engines.
This means they suck up nearby matter, but
then convert it into intense radiation, which
can make black holes brighter than all their
surrounding stars combined. And even
cooler: if a black hole is spinning, it can
blast this radiation out across thousands of
light-years in strong, galaxy-shaping jets.
And it's magnetic fields that are thought to
power these black hole engines.
"Understanding these magnetic fields is
critical," said lead researcher Michael
Johnson. "Nobody has been able to resolve
magnetic fields near the event horizon until
now."
To confirm whether these magnetic fields
exist or not, the researchers looked to the
black hole at the centre of the Milky Way,
known as Sagittarius A-star (Sgr A*), using
a global network of radio telescopes called
the Event Horizon Telescope, which together
form a giant telescope the size of Earth.