Astronomers have captured a new image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, revealing its powerful, twisting magnetic fields. This black hole, weighing as much as 4.3 million suns, was imaged in polarized light, a technique that uses a filter to view different characteristics of the distant object.
The image shows strong, twisted, and organized magnetic fields near the black hole. These magnetic fields can propel jets of matter out of the black hole’s swirling disk of gas. The image also reveals the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that thread the flow of gas and matter that the black hole feeds on and ejects.
The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The astronomers found that both Sagittarius A* and the black hole at the center of the galaxy M87 contain the same type of magnetic structures in their swirling disks, despite a significant size difference.
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