A Black Hole's Spinning Heart of Darkness

sciencehabit writes "Like all invisible things that are only partly understood, black holes evoke a sense of mystery. Astronomers know that the tremendous gravitational pull of a black hole sucks matter in, and that the material falling in causes powerful jets of particles to shoot out of the hole at nearly the speed of light. But how exactly this phenomenon occurs remains a matter of conjecture, because astronomers have never quite managed to observe the details – until now. Astrophysicists have taken the closest look to date at the region where matter swirls around a black hole. By measuring the size of the base of a jet shooting out of the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy (abstract), the researchers conclude that the black hole must be spinning and that the material orbiting must also be swirling in the same direction. Some of the material from this orbiting 'accretion disk' is also falling into the black hole, like water swirling down a drain."

Comments

Re:I've never understood this contradiction

[grantspassalan]

If nothing can escape the gravity, then how is anything escaping the gravity? Does not follow logic.

That's because gravity is not or only barely involved in the phenomenon that are attributed to so-called “black holes”. No one has ever seen a black hole. The phenomenon that are attributed to black holes can all be explained in terms of well-known laws of electricity and magnetism. Gravity is 39 orders of magnitude weaker than electric forces. It predominates only here on earth and in our solar system between electrically neutral bodies. As soon as any electric charges or magnetic fields are involved, gravity is essentially nonexistent. Most matter in the universe is not nicely electrically neutral, such as here on earth, but is highly ionized plasma. The sun consists of highly electrified plasma, such as in a welders arc. Unfathomably immense electrical currents in a galactic circuit power of the sun like a giant arc lamp.