Giant, cosmic ‘Eye of Sauron’ snapped staring directly at us in stunning 15-year time-lapse photo
Astronomers took an astonishing photo of the complex magnetic field of a gigantic jet of energy, nicknamed “the eye of Sauron”, which looked at us directly on the other side of the cosmos. The incredible image, which has taken over 15 years to capture, also sheds light on the mysterious origin of neutrinos, ghostly particles which rarely interact with other materials.
The origin of this brilliant cosmic eye is a double double pks 1424 + 240, located billions of light years from the earth. A Blazar is a type of quasar – a black supermassive hole in the heart of a distant galaxy that pulls gigantic and superpowerpower the energy jets in space. These jets move near the light and contain some of the highest energy of high energy concentrations Gamma rays and X -rays anywhere in the universe.
Blazars are unique because their energy jets are almost perfectly aligned on earth, which means that their radiation strikes our forehead planet, which makes them much brighter than most quasars and often causing them To outdo their domestic galaxies. In this photo, the researchers looked through one of the “jet cones” of PKS 1424 + 240 using radio waves, which allows them to visualize the magnetic fields in the energy beam.
PKS 1424 + 240 was discovered for the first time as a radio source in the 1970s and was then identified as a Blazar in 1988. Subsequent research revealed that the gigantic jets of energy of the black hole are pointed almost directly to us at a angle of less than 0.6 degrees. However, so far, scientists have not been able to draw these energy bundles.
In a new study, published on August 12 in the journal Astronomy and astrophysicsThe researchers unveiled the first clear image of PKS 1424 + 240 after having sewn together 15 years of data collected by the basic network (VLBA) of the National Radio-Astronomy Observatory (VLBA), which combines the observation power of 10 radio dishes located in different American states and territories.
“When we rebuilt the image, it looked absolutely surprising”, the main author of the study Yuri KovalevAn astronomer from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy Radio in Bonn, Germany, said in a statement. “We have never seen anything like this – an almost perfect toroidal magnetic field with a jet, pointing straight to us.”
In relation: A supermassive black hole spotted 12.9 billion light years from the earth – and it draws a bundle of energy just for us
The new image was only possible because of the almost perfect alignment of the jet with the earth, which amplifies its high energy emissions thanks to the Effects of special relativity – Einstein’s theory that the speed of an object relates to the person who observes it. The researchers believe that it makes the throw about 30 times brighter than it would be.
The researchers named the new image The Eye of Sauron because of his resemblance to the symbol of the Dark Lord of the series “The Lord of the Rings” by Jrr Tolkien. This is not the first time that scientists have appointed a discovery after this fictitious entity: in recent years, a Giant submarine volcano in the Indian Ocean and a New species of piranha in the Amazon river were also named after Sauron’s eye.
Understand the “ghost particles”
PKS 1424 + 240 A “long disconcerted astronomers” because it is the blazar emitting from Neutrino known the most brilliant of all Blazar, researchers wrote in the press release.
NeutrinosAlso known as “ghost particles”, are superficial and high energy sub -energy particles which rarely interact with normal matter. They are one of the most abundant particles in the universe, and the experts predict that billions of these ghost particles draw through our body every second.
But despite the possibility of rarely identifying neutrinos Use of giant submarine detectors And particle accelerators inside On Earth, these particles are still wrapped in mystery, which means that scientists must turn to the cosmos for clues on their nature.
The visualization of the magnetic field controlling the jet helped the researchers to see in the “heart” of the PKS 1424 + 240, and they now believe that the magnetic field of Blazar accelerates protons at such high speeds that they become neutrinos, Live Science Sister of Science Live Science Space.com reported.
However, more observations of similar jets are probably necessary to disentangle the mechanism of the way in which this happens.
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