Supercomputer Simulations Explain Massively Powerful Black Hole Jet – Confirms Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

Gigantic Jet Spied From Black Hole in Early Universe

Cupermassive black hole with an X-ray jet. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Further confirmation of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is located 55 million light years away from Earth in the Virgo constellation. It is a giant galaxy with 12,000 globular clusters, making the Milky Way’s 200 globular clusters appear modest in comparison. A black hole of six and a half billion sun masses is harbored at the center of M87. It is the first black hole for which an image exists, created in 2019 by the international research collaboration Event Horizon Telescope.

This black hole (M87*) shoots a jet of plasma at near the speed of light, a so-called relativistic jet, on a scale of 6,000 light years. The tremendous energy needed to power this jet probably originates from the gravitational pull of the black hole, but how a jet like this comes about and what keeps it stable across the enormous distance is not yet fully understood.

M87 Relativistic Jet Theoretical Model and Astronomical Observations

The theoretical model (theory) and the astronomical observations (observation) of the launching site of the relativistic jet of M87 are a very good match. Credit: Alejandro Cruz-Osorio

The black hole M87* attracts matter that rotates in a disc in ever smaller orbits until it is swallowed by the black hole. The jet is launched from the center of the accretion disc surrounding M87, and theoretical physicists at Goethe University, together with scientists from Europe, USA, and China, have now modeled this region in great detail.

They used highly sophisticated three-dimensional supercomputer simulations that use the staggering amount of a million CPU hours per simulation and had to simultaneously solve the equations of general relativity by Albert Einstein, the equations of electromagnetism by James Maxwell, and the equations of fluid dynamics by Leonhard Euler.

M87 Black Hole Magnetic Field Lines Relativistic Jet

Along the magnetic field lines, the particles are accelerated so efficiently that they form a jet out to scales of 6000 light years in the case of M87. Credit: Alejandro Cruz-Osorio

The result was a model in which the values calculated for the temperatures, the matter densities and the magnetic fields correspond remarkably well with what deduced from the astronomical observations. On this basis, scientists were able to track the complex motion of photons in the curved spacetime of the innermost region of the jet and translate this into radio images. They were then able to compare these computer-modeled images with the observations made using numerous radio telescopes and satellites over the past three decades.

Dr. Alejandro Cruz-Osorio, lead author of the study, comments: “Our theoretical model of the electromagnetic emission and of the jet morphology of M87 matches surprisingly well with the observations in the radio, optical and infrared spectra. This tells us that the supermassive black hole M87* is probably highly rotating and that the plasma is strongly magnetized in the jet, accelerating particles out to scales of thousands of light years.”

Professor Luciano Rezzolla, Institute for Theoretical Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt, remarks: “The fact that the images we calculated are so close to the astronomical observations is another important confirmation that Einstein’s theory of general relativity is the most precise and natural explanation for the existence of supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies. While there is still room for alternative explanations, the findings of our study have made this room much smaller.”

Reference: “State-of-the-art energetic and morphological modelling of the launching site of the M87 jet” by Alejandro Cruz-Osorio, Christian M. Fromm, Yosuke Mizuno, Antonios Nathanail, Ziri Younsi, Oliver Porth, Jordy Davelaar, Heino Falcke, Michael Kramer and Luciano Rezzolla, 4 November 2021, Nature Astronomy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-021-01506-w

11 Comments on "Supercomputer Simulations Explain Massively Powerful Black Hole Jet – Confirms Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity"

  1. The normal aurora borealis of the center of the galaxy, which includes ionizing string rays from the center of the universe.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFUM3vAlaGc

  2. its really a trick of the jet light and spatial vector resolution
    did you ever have an optical illusion moment goethe university together with scientists from europe usa and china
    im afraid hal your compuetr simulation has also had same optical illusion moment
    lets take an object called the andromeda galaxy
    virgo constellation the giant galaxy messier 87 with 12,000 globular clusters
    978,469 980,000 light years daimeter 490,00 extended radius
    240,000 light years diameter slightly larger than milky way
    130,000 light years outer central core
    100,000 light years middle central core
    29,000 light years from the central core
    a jet of energetic plasma that originates at the core and entends at least 1,500 par secs 4.900 light years
    as an elliptical galaxy the galaxy is a spheroid rather than a flattened disc accounting for the larger substansial mass of m87
    so now how did you image this jet from the event horizon telescope
    from the core 1,500 light years up = its still in the centre of the central core of the galaxy
    did it peer through 240,000 million light years of space to image it
    or
    is the jet emanating from the top of the galaxy out into intergalactic space 6,500 light years
    and if this is the case the jet on the northern hemisphere side is 126,000 light years
    long
    or
    if the jet is emanating 6500 light years in the middle of the galaxy northwards then at least it must be doing the same southwards that i make is a 13,000 light years jet minimum
    and you managed to clear all those obscuring stars from your image that must have taken a long long time to doctor that image
    and maximum 126,000 northwards
    126,000 southwards
    not bad for a average galaxy in the local cluster

    • Torbjörn Larsson | November 7, 2021 at 8:39 am | Reply

      ? Have you read the paper? There is no room for “illusions” in the match between model and observations – it is quite straightforward as these things go!

  3. its really a trick of obsevation really
    its really a trick of the jet light and spatial vector resolution
    did you ever have an optical illusion moment goethe university together with scientists from europe usa and china
    im afraid hal your computer simulation has also had same optical illusion moment
    lets take an object called the
    virgo constellation the giant galaxy messier 87 with 12,000 globular clusters
    978,469 980,000 light years diameter 490,00 extended radius
    240,000 light years diameter slightly larger than milky way
    130,000 light years outer central core
    100,000 light years middle central core
    29,000 light years from the central core
    a jet of energetic plasma that originates at the core and entends at least 1,500 par secs 4.900 light years
    as an elliptical galaxy the galaxy is a spheroid rather than a flattened disc accounting for the larger substansial mass of m87
    so now how did you image this jet from the event horizon telescope
    from the core 1,500 light years up = its still in the centre of the central core of the galaxy
    did it peer through 60,000 million light years of space to image it
    or
    is the jet emanating from the top of the galaxy out into intergalactic space 6,500 light years
    and if this is the case the jet on the northern hemisphere side is 66,500 light years
    long
    or
    if the jet is emanating 6500 light years in the middle of the galaxy northwards then at least it must be doing the same southwards that i make is a 13,000 light years jet minimum
    and you managed to clear all those obscuring stars from your image that must have taken a long long time to doctor that image
    and maximum 66,500 light years northwards
    66,500 light years southwards
    not bad for a average galaxy in the local cluster

  4. One day when we reach the understanding of the universe we will realize that was just the tip of the iceberg and there’s so much more to learn…

    • Torbjörn Larsson | November 7, 2021 at 8:49 am | Reply

      There is always more to learn, but the last two decades have seen cosmologists understand both inflation and the Hot Big Bang eras to 100 % of the system components.* The universe simulation field moved the research edge towards the discordances instead in 2018 (large review article in Science on that), the one between observed and simulated star formation rate being the largest. And I believe that was almost done with this years Starforge model, which gets that correct starting from molecular clouds.

      If you will extrapolate, maybe planet formation is the new research edge. But in any case, while questions remains (how do early galaxies and supermassive black hole forms, say), the scale of such questions is miniscule compared to the earlier open area.

      **I cite from last Thursday’s release of “Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s” from the US National Academy of Sciences [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog… ]:

      “Using the well understood physics of plasmas, we are able to map the temperature fluctuations seen in the CMB back to the primordial conditions imprinted in the Big Bang. The small primordial fluctuations are inferred to closely follow a specific statistical pattern: Gaussian correlations with no preferred scale and with all components (i.e., dark matter, nuclei, photons, etc.) varying spatially together maintaining a fixed composition. While simple, this result is profoundly important because it indicates that the density perturbations were established before the Hot Big Bang phase of cosmic evolution. It is remarkable that these inferred properties match exceptionally well to the predictions of the theory of cosmological inflation, in which extraordinarily rapid expansion in the earliest moments of the universe established the large-scale homogeneity and flatness of the universe while also causing quantum fluctuations to create exactly the kind of density perturbations we observe.”

      “Early theoretical developments, together with observations over the past two decades, have established the inflationary paradigm as the dominant picture in the field. In inflation, the universe went through an early period of accelerated expansion that smoothed out prior anisotropies, ending in a dramatic event that filled the universe with high-energy particles.”

  5. Torbjörn Larsson | November 7, 2021 at 8:36 am | Reply

    Interesting, since supermassive black hole jets has sailed up as such an important and much analyzed area recently! The paper makes for a comfortable read, and it is amazing how well the simple model fits for high spin simulations (which is preferred by other M87 observations).

    They model the accretion disk as a magnetically arrested disk torus in 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic plasma simulations, and notably include the effects of magnetic reconnection as well to arrive at the particle distributions (thermal and non-thermal) of a two fluid (electrons and ions) model.

    The paper figure 1, which the second figure here is a cutout of, makes their figure 3, which the first figure here is a cutout of, much more comprehensible.

  6. I CAN GET A COMPUTER SIMULATION TO PROVE THE UNIVERSE WAS CREATED IN A GIANT FART.

    SO WHAT? COMPUTER SIMULATIONS ARE NOT REALITY.

    • at what rate did the art of gas expand in the first 350,000 years of the universe
      was it hold your nose stuff until
      the acceleration happened at how many years out and at what diameter was the pong
      and then did it diffuse to the now moment as a perfect perfumed air what radius diameter with no eau dor needed john of the campbell one
      without the use of a computer inform me

  7. Daniel M Perrine, PhD (chem) | November 13, 2021 at 8:15 am | Reply

    I’m guessing that the “Cupermassive black hole” referred to in this article is a black hole formed with large quantities of copper (chemical element whose adjectival form is “cupric” or “cuprous” depending on whether the valence is +1 (-ous) r +2 (-ic). Cupric black holes would be Kelly green if they were not black (i.e. so dense light cannot escape) whilst cuprous black holes would be pale green or a whimpy grey-green.

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