The first black hole ever photographed is apparently ‘reeling’

In April 2019, scientists made history by revealing the first photo of a supermassive black hole – something that, by all accounts, should be invisible. NASA’s Event Horizon telescope revealed what appeared to be a golden hole, situated in the heart of an elliptical galaxy called Messier 87. Naturally, the photo was quickly compared to everything from the Eye of Sauron to a fuzzy bagel, because the Internet it is internet. .

Now, new research published in The Astrophysical Journal shows that when you compile multiple frames together, you can track the motion of the black hole, and it likes to move. Well, more exactly, it turns.

“Because the flow of matter falling into a black hole is turbulent, we can see that the ring wobbles over time,” said Maciek Wielgus, lead author of the study and a radio astronomer at Harvard University.

Using archival data from the last decade, compiled from a combination of still images from the Event Horizon telescope and mathematical models based on the April images, astronomers have been able to get a more detailed idea of ​​the nature of the black hole, and the analysis suggests that the orientation of the ring is not constant.

Thomas Krichbaum, an astronomer and co-author of the study, said in a press release that the motion analysis is important because it provides a “first impression on the dynamic structure of the accretion flow, surrounding the event horizon.”

Accretion flux refers to the speed at which material is pulled into a black hole, which can affect the appearance of the black hole, making some parts brighter than others.

More data is needed before we can begin to make more concrete claims about the black hole, and what it might mean for things like general relativity, but for now, we can just enjoy the fact that the universe has a wobbly hole spinning in its interior. that.