Detecting a monster black hole that may have reversed the magnetic field

A galaxy called 1ES 1927 + 654 stopped emitting X-rays for several months, then resumed emitting X-rays and increasing in intensity.

“This phenomenon marks the first time that X-rays have been completely eliminated while other wavelengths are still emitting light.”Sibasish Laha, the study’s lead author and author science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Maryland.

If scientists can confirm that the phenomenon is caused by a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy changing its magnetic field, the event could help astrophysicists understand this change. How does it affect the black hole’s environment?

The Milky Way has a massive black hole at its center, and the black hole pulls matter toward the center. Matter gathers in an accretion disk around the black hole, then heats up and emits light (visible wavelengths, ultraviolet, and X-rays) as the matter is pushed inward.

Matter pushes inward to form a cloud of extremely hot particles that scientists call a halo. New research shows that changes in the corona are responsible for the temporary disappearance of X-rays emitted from the center of galaxy 1ES 1927 + 654.

If a magnetic field reversal occurs, causing the north pole to become the south pole and vice versa, visible and ultraviolet light will increase towards the center of the galaxy due to heating, as the halo starts off small. away and the accretion disk becomes smaller in the center.

The researchers suggest that as the reversal occurs, the region weakens so much that the X-ray emission stops.

This idea is consistent with observations of this galaxy, which, when X-ray emissions reappeared in October 2018, about 4 months after they disappeared, indicating that a magnetic field reversal had taken place.