Scientists at the Radio Astronomy Institute in Bonn, headed by Christian Fendt, believe that the movement of emissions with superluminal speed of a number of giant black holes is a kind of "dances", their swinging from side to side. The basis for such conclusions was the behavior of the surface of the accretion disk of a black hole similar to that of the Sun. It contains an incandescent gas with various magnetic processes constantly occurring in it, including the addition of lines of force and flares. Hence it follows that the movement and shape of the emissions is controlled by the global magnetic field of this disk.
The center of almost any galaxy is where supermassive black holes exist. The mass of such black holes is several million times greater than the mass of the sun, in contrast to the mass of black holes that have arisen as a result of the collapse of stars. Periodically absorbing stars, gas and celestial bodies, some part of all "selected" energy, black holes eject it in the form of heated plasma beams, in other words - jets, the speed of which is close to the speed of light.
From the results of the first observations of the behavior of such emissions, impossible facts emerged. Matter in different parts of the plasma beams could radically change the speed of its movement, and in some cases even exceed the speed of light. This discovery led scientists to a stupor as to why such beams of matter arise and move, because this is directly at odds with the laws of physics. Fendt and his colleagues were able to answer this question only after observing the largest and closest to us supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87 in the constellation Virgo. The jet of a black hole located in this galaxy was discovered almost a century ago. Its distance from Earth at just 54 million light years makes it possible to see it with the simplest ground-based telescopes.
Thanks to the VLBA radio telescopic network, which included a dozen powerful astronomical radio dishes, scientists managed to capture the "leg" of the jet, and approach it at a distance of about 7 times less than the size of the Solar System itself. Namely, having worked through hundreds of obtained images, astronomers from Germany determined the "dancing" behavior of the jet - a constantly swinging base and streams of matter, additionally accelerating under the influence of magnetic fields. Because of such fluctuations occurring, the impression was that the movement of the flow occurs at a speed faster than light, because the matter periodically twisted into a spiral, and did not line up in a straight line.
According to the researchers' assumptions, the source of these fields, which surround the black hole, is the accretion disk, the so-called "donut", which is formed by the hot gas and the ground matter of stars and planets. The interaction of powerful magnetic fields in this "donut" affects the behavior of the jet, and may even contribute to its inception, as if "moving" the point where the ejection of the black hole is located.
Like on the Sun, flares and spots that are born on its surface, black holes are ejected in a similar way. Astronomers hope to verify the reliability of the "relationship" of these processes in the future after a more detailed deciphering by the participants of the Event Horizon Telescope project of the images of the M87 core obtained earlier this month.