Have you ever used GPS or any other navigational instruments like a compass
a lot of these rely on interacting with the Earth's magnetic field in order to orient itself
what would happen if that magnetic field suddenly flipped
we know from the geological record that the Earth's magnetic field reverses what's very
interesting is exactly what happens when that reversal occurs and of course we
haven't been around as a civilized society to be able to have seen that scientists now have
an unprecedented opportunity to study this type of event with the discovery
of a massive black hole in a far away Galaxy that just experienced this cataclysmic event
in the galaxy known as one es1927 plus 654 236 million light years
away a rare and enigmatic emittance of energy was recently detected
all of a sudden the x-rays they had been recording from the Galaxy completely disappeared researchers
noticed that this Lal in the x-rays occurred while radiation on other ranges of the spectrum became
even stronger in May of 2018 astronomers observed the UV emissions from this Galaxy and measured
them at levels 12 times higher than average by this time the UV radiation detected was
already declining steadily meaning that scientists caught this event after its peak of UV emissions
after this astronomers knew that they needed to continue to keep an eye on it and study
this galaxy then a few months later in June the X-ray emissions disappeared
knocking astronomers into high gear to try and understand what had happened
one of the study's lead authors Sibasish Laha noted that this event marks the first time we've
seen x-rays dropping out completely while the other wavelengths brighten so what could have
caused this unique alteration of the Galaxy's emissions at first a theory was introduced to
explain this event suggesting that a large enough star passing close to the black hole
could have been torn apart and disrupted the flow of gases causing the emitted radiation,
but this type of event would have dissipated much more rapidly than the Outburst that was
detected from the Galaxy scientists now believe that this Outburst of
radiation was caused by the black hole in this Galaxy's Center going through
the process called magnetic reversal in which its magnetic field surrounding the black hole
flips swapping the positions of the north magnetic pole and the South magnetic pole
thank you black holes don't generate magnetic fields themselves but the dust and gas that
swirl around them to create an extremely powerful magnetic field that envelops the
black hole many orders of magnitude stronger and larger than the one generated by the Earth
as the plasma circles the black hole the charged particles that make it up generate
both an electric and a magnetic field scientists have learned that magnetic fields like the ones
surrounding a black hole and the Earth can as far as scientists know spontaneously flip its
pulse scientists don't know how or why this happens, but they have been able to figure
out how many times it has happened in the past data from geological surveys have found that
the Earth's magnetic field has reversed at least several hundred times in the past 160
million years with time in between reversals ranging from the shortest 10,000 years and
as long as 50 million years averaging out to approximately one reversal every 300 000 years
I guess the models show that that could change quite a lot I mean people talk about
configurations like octopoles or quadrupoles, so the Earth's magnetic field could really become
quite complicated and if you then think about the effect of that on the upper atmosphere but also on
things like satellite and Communications then that could be quite a substantial effect, and
we really don't know how that's going to play out could the trigger that caused this black hole to
flip its magnetic field give us Clues to predict when the earth will go through its next reversal
foreign
this Outburst of energy has been studied by NASA's Swift Space Observatory which
specializes in studying x-rays gamma-ray bursts as well as UV and visible light the
European Space Agency's XMM Newton Satellite was also used to gather more data about the
ultraviolet and x-rays coming from this Galaxy while ground-based telescopes around the world
were busy collecting information on the visible light and radio waves coming from
this galaxy using these instruments the team of astronomers hoped to complete the next stage of
tests confirm what in fact caused this Outburst was it generated from the magnetic field of a
supermassive black hole flipping or if it was caused by some other type of event at this point
most of the evidence that has been collected fits with the models of a magnetic reversal,
but more information needs to be collected and additional studies need to be completed
in order to confirm Beyond doubt what caused this rare event to occur luckily the researchers are
clever and figured out specific key signs that we would expect to see during a magnetic reversal
a magnetic field reversing its orientation is a major event and thanks to the current
understanding of electromagnetics there is a decent understanding of what would happen if
one were to take place as the magnetic poles of the black hole flipped it would have a number
of effects on the surrounding matter and the types of radiation being emitted visible and ultraviolet
light should increase around the center of the Galaxy because of a massive increase in heat
as the matter in the area deals with the rapid change in the local magnetic field the corona that
surrounds the black hole would start to shrink as the accretion disc compacts itself around the
gravitational giant when things begin to settle down scientists believe that the magnetic field
will weaken enough to lose its ability to hold on to the corona which would cause all
x-ray emissions to Halt for a time before slowly beginning again it appears that this exact process
occurred in this galaxy as astronomers continued to study it they finally detected x-ray emissions
re-emerging four months later which adds another level of evidence pointing at a magnetic reversal
the X-ray emissions do not come back fast at all it took until late summer of 2021
before the X-ray emissions reached the strength that they had before this rare event took place
if they can find more evidence and officially confirm the cause of the strange Outburst it
will help physicists understand more about a magnetic reversal and how such events affect
the environment around it could this help in the case of another magnetic field reversal on Earth
thanks for watching are you worried about the effects that a magnetic field reversal
will have on modern day let us know in the comments below and join us next time on Matter!