Black hole breakthrough: New insight into mysterious jets

Advanced simulations created with one of the world's

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most powerful supercomputers show the jets' streams gradually change direction in the sky, or precess, as a result of space-time being dragged into the rotation of the black hole. This behavior aligns with Albert Einstein's predictions about extreme gravity near rotating black holes, published in his famous theory of general relativity.

"Understanding how rotating black holes drag the space-time around them and how this process affects what we see through the telescopes remains a crucial, difficult-to-crack puzzle," said Alexander Tchekhovskoy, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. "Fortunately, the breakthroughs in code development and leaps in supercomputer architecture are bringing us ever closer to finding the answers."

The study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is a collaboration between Tchekhovskoy, Matthew Liska and Casper Hesp. Liska and Hesp are the study's lead authors and graduate students at The University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-01-black-hole-breakthrough-insight-mysterious.html#jCp