Astronomers image magnetic fields at the edge of M87's black hole

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, which produced the first-ever image of a black hole, has today revealed a new view of the massive object at the center of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy: how it looks in polarised light. With this data, astronomers measured polarization, a signature of magnetic fields, for the first time this close to the edge of a black hole. The observations are key to explaining how the M87 galaxy, located 55 million light-years away, can launch energetic jets from its core.

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