The cosmos is vast and mysterious, filled with wonders that continue to baffle and amaze us.
Yet amidst this grand expanse, there are certain moments that
stand out as true milestones in our understanding of the universe.
One such moment occurred on April 10th, 2019 - the day that the Event Horizon Telescope
(EHT) collaboration unveiled the first-ever direct image of the shadow of a black hole.
The image was a testament to the hard work and
dedication of countless scientists and researchers who had come together from
around the world to capture this elusive glimpse of a black hole's event horizon.
But it was far from being perfect.
Yes, this image is not entirely true, because it lacks a lot of data,
and was crafted using whatever information we could get.
But our limitations seem to be cakewalk for artificial intelligence.
Now, two years later, scientists have used a new machine learning technique to reprocess the
original data and reveal a new, sharper view of the blazing orange material swirling around M87,
the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy. What does it look like?
Welcome to Lab 360, its time to explore.
This new image is a thing of beauty and a marvel of scientific achievement. With its
improved resolution, it provides an even more detailed look at the extreme environment around
a black hole, allowing us to better understand its behavior and improve our scientific analyses.
As astrophysicist Lia Medeiros of the Institute for Advanced Study and the EHT explains,
"Since we cannot study black holes up close,
the detail in an image plays a critical role in our ability to understand its behavior.
The width of the ring in the image is now smaller by about a factor of two,
which will be a powerful constraint for our theoretical models and tests of gravity."
The achievement of this new image is all the more remarkable when
one considers the incredible challenges that had to be overcome to capture it.
M87 is located 55 million light-years away, and imaging its supermassive black hole was
a monumental undertaking that required seven radio telescopes around the globe
to combine their forces and create what is effectively one Earth-sized telescope.
It took four days of observing time to collect the data that eventually
became the now-familiar image, and the data processing was extremely labour-intensive.
Yet despite these challenges, the scientists persisted, and their efforts have paid off
in spades. The new machine learning algorithm, PRIMO, developed by Medeiros and her colleagues,
has allowed them to fill in the gaps in the data caused by the limitations of interferometry,
the technique used to combine the data from the seven telescopes.
PRIMO relies on dictionary learning, in which an algorithm is
trained by being shown thousands of examples of a thing to learn the rules of how that thing works.
The researchers trained PRIMO with over 30,000 simulated images of active black
holes so that it could learn how the process works and look for patterns.
The result is a highly accurate image of M87*, at the maximum resolution currently possible,
that reveals the structure missing from the original image and is consistent with both
the four days' worth of data collected in 2017 and theoretical predictions.
This new image is not only a triumph of scientific achievement, but also a
reminder of the boundless curiosity and spirit of exploration that drives humanity forward.
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As we continue to explore the mysteries of the cosmos, we can be inspired by the incredible
feats that we have already accomplished, and the incredible discoveries that lie ahead.
Just like this supermassive blackhole that has suddenly turned towards us.
Yes, you heard that right! Scientists have reclassified a galaxy,
after finding that the supermassive black hole in its centre has changed direction,
and guess what? It is now aiming right at us!
The galaxy in question is found 657 million light-years away from Earth, and goes by the
catchy name of PBC J 23 33.9, but for convenience, we are going to call it just PBC for now.
Scientists started to study this galaxy as it showed peculiar properties. Their
hypothesis was that the relativistic jet of its supermassive black hole had changed
its direction, and to confirm that idea they carried out a lot of observations.
PBC was previously classified as a giant radio galaxy because at one stage it sent
out jet material on either side, which measures a mind-boggling four million lightyears across
– around 40 times the size of our own galaxy. It was quite a shock, then, when astronomers
looked into PBC, and realised it was pointing right at us.
It means the galaxy has moved by a 90 degree angle,
and it’s now a ‘blazar’ – which means a galaxy point which has jet points pointing at Earth.
The jet material from the black hole has created two huge lobes on either side of the galaxy,
and they’re the most immediately notable thing when observed with radio waves.
The fact that we see the nucleus is not feeding the lobes anymore means that they are very old.
They are the relics of past activity, whereas the structures located closer to the nucleus
represent younger and active jets. It’s not exactly clear how this
could have happened. One guess is that PBC collided with another galaxy, which could
explain how the angle of axis changed. Either way, this discovery affirms that
we do not know much about black holes, let alone the universe.
Now, coming to the more concerning part, the one that you are eager to know.
This black hole pointing directly at us, do not pose an immediate threat to our planet.
Supermassive black holes are incredibly far away from Earth, with the closest one being
located about 26,000 light-years away in the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
Even with the supermassive black hole pointed directly at us,
its gravitational effects on Earth would be negligible.
Furthermore, black holes do not emit any light or radiation that could harm us. Instead,
they are detected through their gravitational effects on nearby matter, such as stars and gas.
So, while a supermassive black hole pointed directly at Earth
would certainly be a fascinating astronomical phenomenon to observe,
it would not pose a danger to our planet, and, yes, we need to learn a lot more about the topic.
While it's highly unlikely that a supermassive black hole would start coming towards Earth,
but if it did, it would take millions of years for it to approach us, and
humanity has plenty of time to prepare and take action.
Imagine what it would be like, to watch a black hole in the sky;
first appearing just like a star, and then, slowly becoming bigger,
revealing its majestic beauty, turning us, first into philosophers, and then into noodles.
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