Event Horizon telescope captures flickering magnetic turbulence at edge of black hole M87*

For a few short nights each year, you have a rare chance to see a monster blink.

The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has released new, detailed images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the M87 galaxy. The pictures don’t just show a shiny ring. They also track polarized light, a clue that reveals how magnetic fields behave near the black hole’s edge.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics helped build and validate the images. What they found is both stable and surprising. The size of the ring remains constant over time. However, the polarization pattern, the “fingerprint” of magnetism, changes abruptly from year to year.

This change suggests a turbulent environment near the event horizon. It also raises a simple question that is proving difficult to answer: Why did the magnetic signal fade, then flip?

A ring that holds constant, even as the scene changes

In 2017, EHT saw a spiral polarization pattern near M87*. That spiral signaled a large-scale twisted magnetic structure. It supported long-held ideas about how black holes shape their surroundings.

Then the story took a turn. In 2018, the polarization has almost disappeared. By 2021, the remaining weak signal began to grow in the opposite direction.

The changing pattern suggests a system that may be evolving faster than expected. This suggests that the magnetized plasma near the black hole is not standing still. It changes, changes and rearranges.

“What is remarkable is that although the size of the ring has remained constant over the years, confirming the shadow of the black hole predicted by Einstein’s theory, the polarization pattern changes significantly,” said Dr. Paul Tiede, astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian. Tiede is also a graduate of Waterloo and Perimeter. “This tells us that the magnetized plasma swirling near the event horizon is far from static; it is dynamic and complex, pushing our theoretical models to the limit.”

Even with that constant ring, the shifting bias makes the system feel alive. It’s like seeing the same scene, with a different piece every night.

Magnetic cues and a jet that refuses to be ignored

Folktales paint black holes as perfect traps. Matter goes in and nothing comes back. M87* continues to complicate this picture.

In the vicinity of this black hole, energetic material can be trapped in a strong electromagnetic field. This field can help eject material outward, fueling a jet that starts near the event horizon.

That jet eventually reaches about 90 percent of the speed of light. The new polarization results provide a tentative first hint of a link between the bright ring of plasma and the engine at the base of the aircraft.

You can feel the stakes in this connection. If the magnetic field near the ring changes, it can change how the jet starts, settles, or grows. This possibility puts new pressure on models trying to explain how black holes propel jets.

The EHT team returns to M87* again and again for this reason. Each year can capture a new moment in a long and violent process.

Sorting the signal from the noise in a difficult image

Transforming EHT data into an image is not like taking a normal photo. The network brings together signals from distant telescopes. The teams then test which features are real and which could come from the tools.

“Black holes keep their mysteries tight, but now we’re gathering their answers,” said Dr. Avery Broderick, professor in Waterloo’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and associate professor at the Perimeter Institute. “Our team at Waterloo has been instrumental in reconstructing the images from the EHT data and determining what we can trust is real and what might just be an instrumental artifact. We have been at the forefront of understanding how EHT images, and especially their evolution, can reveal the astrophysical dramas that play out on the most extreme stage of gravity.”

This precaution matters more when the signal is weak. In 2018, the polarization has almost disappeared. In 2021, it returned only as a small remnant.

A small remnant may still be real. It can also be fragile. That’s why the team emphasizes validation, especially when comparing different years.

However, the broad pattern is hard to ignore. Polarization has not only diminished. He changed the character.

The surroundings of the black hole are not simple

The stable size of the ring reinforces a famous idea. Physicists sometimes say that black holes “have no hair.” It’s a metaphor, not a literal statement. It means that a black hole can only be described by a few basic features, such as mass, spin, and charge.

Broderick emphasizes the contrast. The black hole itself may allow neat predictions. The material around it can be messy.

“It’s one of the reasons why they’re so interesting as gravitational objects. You can make very sharp and clear predictions, and all the astrophysical phenomena don’t seem to matter very much,” Broderick said. “But things around you can have hair, and these magnetic fields are a striking example. We’ve had a clear idea of ​​what kind of magnetic hairstyles should be allowed for a long time, but now we see that, just like with humans, you can get a lot of different hairstyles over the course of four years.”

That “hair” is the moving, magnetized plasma. It orbits close to the event horizon. It shines in the radio light. Its polarization carries information about the magnetic field that shapes it.

In 2017, the field looked organized enough to form a spiral. In 2018, this order disappeared. In 2021, the spiral returned with a reverse direction.

Astrophysicists now face a deeper problem than a simple reversal. They have to explain what physical change could erase the polarization, then restore it differently.

Broderick has been thinking about this problem for a long time. In 2009, he wrote a paper proposing that imaging M87* could reveal black hole physics through magnetic field variability. That idea has now become a multi-year effort with real data and real surprises.

Practical implications of the research

These new images give researchers a time-lapse view of magnetism under extreme gravity. This matters because magnetic fields likely help shape how black holes gobble up matter and launch jets. As the EHT collects more years of data, scientists can test which jet patterns survive contact with reality. They can also learn what makes a magnetic structure stay organized or fall apart.

The work also strengthens confidence in the stable characteristics of M87*. The constant size of the ring supports the predictions related to Einstein’s theory. This stability helps researchers treat the ring as a reliable anchor. With that anchor, they can focus on the changing parts, like polarization, without questioning the whole picture.

Over time, better images and longer records can help connect near-horizon activity with what’s happening farther out in the jet. This connection can sharpen your understanding of how galaxies evolve, as jets can affect gas, dust and star formation on a massive scale. Reward is not a gadget or medicine. It’s a clearer map of how the universe builds and reshapes itself.

The research results are available online in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The original story “Event Horizon Telescope captures magnetic turbulence flickering at edge of black hole M87*” is published in The Brighter Side of News.

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