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Twisted magnetic fields fire jets from black holes

Pictures of spreads from New Scientist magazine

SUPERMASSIVE black holes at the centre of galaxies are thought to shoot out violent jets of matter and energy, but exactly how they do it has been a mystery. Now, the most realistic computer simulations yet suggest that as black holes spin they coil up the magnetic fields around them so tightly that when these fields uncoil they spew particles hundreds of thousands of light years into space.

Astronomers have observed thousands of jets radiating at radio frequencies from what are called "radio-loud" quasars. But they cannot agree on how the jets, thought to be powered by black holes a billion times the mass of the sun, are formed.

According to one leading theory, the jets begin in an accretion disc of ionised gas, or plasma, around the black hole. The plasma's charged particles create magnetic fields as the disc rotates, and these push gas and radiation out at the ...



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