Study says mechanism that creates shape of black hole disks discovered

According to a new study published in the scientific journal The Open Journal of Astrophysics, a group of scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) claim to have carried out this work. Simulations to better understand the evolution of black holes.

Some data suggests that some properties of these supermassive objects, such as the accretion disk around the hole, are not entirely accurate. To better understand the issue, the team of researchers say they performed a simulation of a single supermassive black hole.

Scientists discovered Magnetic fields play a much larger role in the formation of black holes than previously understood.In fact, they are the ones that maintain the shape of the accretion disks that rotate around this dense region.

As the scientists explain, the paper challenges what science has understood about black holes since the 1970s; even today there is still much to discover about this strange region of space.

Although it may seem like a small discovery, if completely accurate, astronomers suggest it would change estimates of the mass, density, thickness, speed of motion, and geometry of accretion disks.

“Our new simulation marks the culmination of several years of work from two major collaborations initiated at Caltech. But there was a large gap between the two. Now, for the first time, we have closed that gap. To do this, the researchers needed to create a simulation with 1,000 times higher resolution than the best previous simulation in the field.“, Phil Hopkins, professor of theoretical astrophysics, said in an official statement.

Disks, black holes and magnetic fields

During the study, the researchers simulated that the pressure of the magnetic fields forming the disks could be 10,000 times greater than the thermal pressure of the gas. If the information is confirmed, this would mean that the disks are almost entirely controlled by magnetic fields. Scientists believe the results could help answer some of the mysteries in black hole research.

Because of their remoteness, most scientists studying the subject are aiming to run computer simulations to understand the interactions of a supermassive black hole. In any case, researchers will continue to search for more information to confirm the data and thus understand black hole accretion disks.

“In our simulation, we see this accretion disk forming around the black hole. We would have been very excited to see this accretion disk, but what was very surprising was that the simulated disk did not look like what we had thought it should look like for decades. Therefore, the disks are almost entirely controlled by magnetic fields.“Magnetic fields have several functions, one of which is to support the disks and allow the material to swell,” Hopkins adds.

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