Astronomy Picture of the Day - IXPE Explores a Black Hole Jet

NASA ^ | 9 May, 2025 | Illustration Credit: NASA, Pablo Garcia

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: How do black holes create X-rays? Answering this long-standing question was significantly advanced recently with data taken by NASA’s IXPE satellite. X-rays cannot exit a black hole, but they can be created in the energetic environment nearby, in particular by a jet of particles moving outward. By observing X-ray light arriving from near the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy BL Lac, called a blazar, it was discovered that these X-rays lacked significant polarization, which is expected when created more by energetic electrons than protons. In the featured artistic illustration, a powerful jet is depicted emanating from an orange-colored accretion disk circling the black hole. Understanding highly energetic processes across the universe helps humanity to understand similar processes that occur on or near our Earth.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[Fledermaus]

The Evil Eye

[17th Miss Regt]

Sauron!

[Gary from Dayton]

That would be a cool 70s 33 1/3 vinyl sleeve.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

M.C. This seems like a good place to post this.

Something on the COSMOS 482 DESCENT CRAFT (ID 6073) reentry.

Aerospace org Cosmos 482 Reentry Prediction

[BBB333]

The poster for the new Cheech & Chong movie...

[JimRed]

If nothing can escape, how do particles move outward?

[MtnClimber]

If nothing can escape, how do particles move outward?

Electrically charged particles moving at high speed in the accretion disk get captured by the magnetic field of the black hole and are accelerated toward the north pole or the south pole and form jets before they get to the event horizon.