Chinese-led research team finds evidence of spinning black hole
- Using data from radio telescopes around the world, researchers found that a black hole in Galaxy M87 had tilted
- The team concluded that the supermassive object has an 11-year cycle
Sifting through more than 20 years of observation data from a global network of radio telescopes, the team – which included researchers from Japan, Italy, and the United States – found that a gigantic black hole in Galaxy M87 had been shooting off jets that wobbled like a spinning top.
It took about 11 years for the jets to complete one cycle, the team reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
“This is the first observational evidence to show that black holes not only spin, but they spin with a tilt,” said astrophysicist Gou Lijun from the National Astronomical Observatories of China in Beijing, who was not involved in the research.
“Such a discovery was only possible with the long-term accumulation and thorough analyses of observation data, showing how important it is for telescopes and astronomers to work together to advance our understanding of the universe.”
The spin of a gyroscope often involves two components – the rotation of the gyroscope itself, and a constant change in the orientation of the gyroscope’s rotational axis around a central point, a process known as precession, according to Gou.
