Jump to content
  • Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...
1 Vote = 0.10€ for server Owner!

[NASA] NASA’s IXPE Reveals X-ray-Generating Particles in Black Hole Jets

SpaceMan

By SpaceMan,
in World News

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Diamond Member
SpaceMan Hunter

SpaceMan 0

Posted
  • Diamond Member
Posted

5 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

The blazar BL Lacertae, a supermassive ****** hole surrounded by a bright disk and jets oriented toward Earth, provided scientists with a unique opportunity to answer a longstanding question: How are X-rays generated in extreme environments like this?

NASA’s IXPE (

This is the hidden content, please
) collaborated with radio and optical telescopes to find answers. The results (
This is the hidden content, please
), to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, show that interactions between fast-moving electrons and particles of light, called photons, must lead to this X-ray emission. 

This is the hidden content, please
This artist’s concept depicts the central region of the blazar BL Lacertae, a supermassive ****** hole surrounded by a bright disk and a jet oriented toward Earth. The galaxy’s central ****** hole is surrounded by swirls of orange in various shades representing the accretion disk of material falling toward the ****** hole. While ****** holes are known for pulling in material, this accretion process can result in the ejection of jets of electrons at nearly the speed of light. The jet of matter is represented by the cone of light that starts at the center of the ****** hole and widens out as it reaches the bottom of the image. It is streaked with lines of white, pink and purple which represent helix-shaped magnetic fields. We can observe these jets in many wavelengths of light including radio, optical, and X-ray. NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) recently collaborated with radio and optical telescopes to observe this jet and determine how the X-rays are generated in these types of celestial environments.
NASA/Pablo Garcia

Scientists had two competing possible explanations for the X-rays, one involving protons and one involving electrons. Each of these mechanisms would have a different signature in the polarization of X-ray light. Polarization is a property of light that describes the average direction of the electromagnetic waves that make up light.

If the X-rays in a ****** hole’s jets are highly polarized, that would mean that the X-rays are produced by protons gyrating in the magnetic field of the jet or protons interacting with jet’s photons. If the X-rays have a lower polarization degree, it would suggest that electron-photons interactions lead to X-ray production.  

IXPE, which launched Dec. 9, 2021, is the only satellite flying today that can make such a polarization measurement. 

“This was one of the biggest mysteries about supermassive ****** hole jets” said Iván Agudo, lead author of the study and astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía – CSIC in Spain. “And IXPE, with the help of a number of supporting ground-based telescopes, finally provided us with the tools to solve it.”

Astronomers found that electrons must be the culprits through a process called Compton Scattering. Compton scattering (or the Compton effect) happens when a photon loses or gains energy after interacting with a charged particle, usually an electron. Within jets from supermassive ****** holes, electrons move near the speed of light. IXPE helped scientists learn that, in the case of a blazar jet, the electrons have enough energy to scatter photons of infrared light up to X-ray wavelengths. 

BL Lacertae (BL Lac for short) is one of the first blazars ever discovered, originally thought to be a variable star in the Lacerta constellation. IXPE observed BL Lac at the end of November 2023 for seven days along with several ground-based telescopes measuring optical and radio polarization at the same time. While IXPE observed BL Lac in the past, this observation was special. Coincidentally, during the X-ray polarization observations, the optical polarization of BL Lac reached a high number: 47.5%. 

“This was not only the most polarized BL Lac has been in the past 30 years, this is the most polarized any blazar has ever been observed!” said Ioannis Liodakis, one of the primary authors of the study and astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics – FORTH in Greece. 

IXPE found the X-rays were far less polarized than the optical light. The team was not able to measure a strong polarization signal and determined that the X-rays cannot be more polarized than 7.6%. This proved that electrons interacting with photons, via the Compton effect, must explain the X-rays. 

The fact that optical polarization was so much higher than in the X-rays can only be explained by Compton scattering.

This is the hidden content, please
/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Steven Ehlert

Project Scientist for IXPE at Marshall Space Flight Center

“The fact that optical polarization was so much higher than in the X-rays can only be explained by Compton scattering”, said Steven Ehlert, project scientist for IXPE and astronomer at the Marshall Space Flight Center. 

“IXPE has managed to solve another ****** hole mystery” said Enrico Costa, astrophysicist in Rome at the Istituto di Astrofísica e Planetologia Spaziali of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofísica. Costa is one of the scientists who conceived this experiment and proposed it to NASA 10 years ago, under the leadership of Martin Weisskopf, IXPE’s first principal investigator. “IXPE’s polarized X-ray vision has solved several long lasting mysteries, and this is one of the most important. In some other cases, IXPE results have challenged consolidated opinions and opened new enigmas, but this is how science works and, for sure, IXPE is doing very good science.”

What’s next for the blazar research?

“One thing we’ll want to do is try to find as many of these as possible,” Ehlert said. “Blazars change quite a bit with time and are full of surprises.”

More about IXPE

IXPE, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling groundbreaking discoveries about celestial objects across the universe, is a joint NASA and Italian Space Agency mission with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. Learn more about IXPE’s ongoing mission here:

This is the hidden content, please

Elizabeth Landau
NASA Headquarters
elizabeth.r*****@*****.tld
202-358-0845

Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
lane.e*****@*****.tld
256.544.0034 

Share

Details

Last Updated
May 06, 2025
Editor
Beth Ridgeway
Contact
Elizabeth R. Landau

Related Terms

Explore More

This is the hidden content, please
This is the hidden content, please

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Vote for the server

    To vote for this server you must login.

    Jim Carrey Flirting GIF

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

Privacy Notice: We utilize cookies to optimize your browsing experience and analyze website traffic. By consenting, you acknowledge and agree to our Cookie Policy, ensuring your privacy preferences are respected.

  I accept