The image showed Sgr A* in polarized light for the first time, revealing a magnetic field structure very similar to that of the M87* supermassive black hole.
A new image captured by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has astronomers excited about magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), as well as it hinting at a hidden jet. The image showed Sgr A* in polarized light for the first time, revealing a magnetic field structure very similar to that of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy.
The first image of Sgr A* was first shared in 2022, revealing that while the supermassive black hole was much smaller than M87’s, the two shared similarities. This led scientists and astronomers to decide to study Sgr A* in polarized light. The news of the image was shared via the Event Horizon ‘Scope’s X/Twitter account. It noted that the image provided strong evidence that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes, as well as hinting toward a hidden jet in Sgr A*.
“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,” remarked Sara Issaoun, NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Einstein Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and co-lead of the project.
