Scientists finally explain the mysterious glow around black holes

Due to the small size of accretion disks and the enormous distance to them, there are no suitable images in

high resolution, which would be useful forresearch. So astronomers used data from NASA's ATLAS telescope in Hawaii. Every night (weather permitting) it scans the sky, tracking asteroids approaching Earth. However, scientists used data on the glow of black holes in the background of the images. Astronomers tracked the daily changes in brightness caused by the accretion for five years.

Using statistical methods, the scientists measured how much light emitted by 5,000 accretion disks flickered over time. All of them were different.

An image of the glowing accretion disk around the black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of the Milky Way. Credit: EHT Collaboration

When the scientists sorted the objects by their size,brightness and color, we noticed a pattern. The disk glow pattern depends on its orbital velocity. It changes due to a kind of turbulence caused by friction and intense gravitational and magnetic fields, the scientists conclude.

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On the cover: ESO/L. Calçada, SS BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons