The blazar bl lacertae, a supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright disk and jets oriented toward Earth, provided scientists with a unique opoportunity to answer X-rays generated in extreme environments like this?
Nasa’s ixpe (imaging x-ray polarimetry explorer) collaborated with radio and optical telescopes to find answers. The results (Preprint available here), to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, Show that Interactions Between Fast-Moving Electrons and Particles of Light, Called PHOTONS, MUST LeAD to this X-READ to this X-READ to this X-READ to this X-READE EMISTION.
Scientists Had two competing passible expenses for the x-rays, one involving protons and one involving electrons. Each of these mechanisms would have a different signature in the polarization of x-ray light. Polarization is a property of light that describes the average direction of the electromagnetic waves that make up light.
If the x-rays in a black hole’s jets are highly polarized, that would mean that that the x-rays are produced by protons gyrating in the magnetic field of the jet or protons in the intercoming with ‘ If the x-rays have a lower polarization degree, it would sugest that electron-photos interactions lead to x-ray production.
Ixpe, which launched dec. 9, 2021, is the only satellite flying today that can make such a polarization measurement.
“This was one of the biggest mysteries about supermassive black hole jets” said iván agudo, lead author of the study and astronomer at the instituto de astroofísica de andalucía – CSICCH “And ixpe, with the help of a number of supporting ground-based telescopes, finally provided us with the tools to solve it.”
Astronomers found that Electrons must be the Culprits through a process called compton scattering. Compton Scattering (or the Compton Effect) Happy Within jets from supermassive Black Holes, Electrons Move Near The Speed of Light. IXPE Helped Scientists Learn that, in the case of a blazar jet, the electrons have enough energy to scatter photos of infrared light up to x-ray wavelenghs.
Bl Lairtae (BL Lac For Short) is one of the first blazars evr dissected, originally thought to be a variable star in the lacerta constellation. IXPE observed bl lac at the end of November 2023 for Seven Days Along with Several Ground-Based Telescopes Measuring Optical and Radio Polarization at the Same Time. While iXPE observed bl lac in the past, this observation was special. Coincidentally, during the X-Ray Polarization observations, the optical polarization of blu lac raached a high number: 47.5%.
“This was not only the most polarized bl lac has been in the past 30 years, this is the most polarized any blazar has been observed!” Said ioannis lodakis, one of the primary authors of the study and astroophyssicist at the institute of astrophysics – Forth in Greece.
IXPE Found the X-Rays Were far Less Polarized Than the Optical Light. The team was not due to measure a strong polarization signal and determined that the x-rays cannot be more polarized than 7.6%. This Proved that Electrons Interacting With Photons, Via the Compton Effect, Must Explain the X-Rays.
Steven Ehlert
Project Scientist for iXPE at Marshall Space Flight Center
“The fact that optical polarization was so much higher than in the x-rays can only be explained by compton scattering”, said steven Ehlert, Project Scientist for IXPE and ATRONOMER ASTRONOMER SAPACE Flight Center.
“IXpe has managed to solve another black hole mystery” said enrico costa, Astrophysicist in rome at the istituto di astroofísica e planetologia spaziali of the istituto nazionale di astroofísica. Costa is one of the scientists who conceived this experience and proposed it to nasa 10 years ago, under the Leadership of Martin Weisskopf, iXPE’s First Principal Investigator. “IXPE’s Polarized X-Ray Vision Has Solved Several Long Lasting Mysteries, and this is one of the most important. In some other cases, ixpe results havhe Consolenged CONSOLENGED CONSOLEDATED OPINED OPINED NEWE ENINGMAS, But this is how science works and, for sure, ixpe is doing very good science. “
What’s Next for the Blazar Research?
“One thing we’ll want to do is try to find as many of these as possible,” Ehlert said. “Blazars Change Quite a Bit With Time and Are Full of Surprises.”
More about ixpe
IXPE, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling GroundBreaking Discoveries About Celet Celestial Objects Across the Universe, is a JOINT NASA and ITALALIAN SPACE AGENCY MINCY MINTARE MINCY MINTAL Science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is LED by Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Bae Systems, Inc., Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Manages Spacecraft Operations TogeTher with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Bowlder. Learn more about icke ongoing mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/ixpe
Elizabeth Landau
Nasa headquarters
elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov
202-358-0845
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
256.544.0034
