Scientists may have discovered something we thought impossible before. Magnetic inversion is not uncommon when it comes to cosmic entities. Our sun experiences a magnetic field reversal every 11 years. This is the dynamics of the solar cycle that astronomers have observed for hundreds of years. Scientists point out that even the earth experiences these magnetic events every hundreds of thousands of years. Now, however, scientists have evidence of the magnetic reversal of black holes.
For a long time, black hole has been a mysterious point, and scientists have only recently simulated the possible appearance inside the black hole. Recently, we have also seen the birth of new stars from black holes. However, this new discovery only increases the mystery of these cosmic entities.
A new study could overturn everything we know about black holes
It is understood that this new study focuses on the data captured by the automatic Sky Survey in 2018. The survey found a sudden change in a galaxy about 239 million light-years away. Scientists believe that this galaxy, called 1es 1927 + 654, may allow us to see the magnetic reversal in a black hole for the first time.
The 2018 survey found that the galaxy's brightness in visible light increased 100 times compared with previous surveys. Shortly after the discovery, the swift Observatory captured the galaxy's light in X-rays and ultraviolet light.
Archival observations of galaxy 1es 1927 + 654 show that the galaxy began to brighten around the end of 2017. When it happened, astronomers thought the brightening was caused by a star approaching a supermassive black hole that called the galaxy home. However, the new study raises some doubts about this belief.
Now, NASA says it could be a magnetic reversal in a black hole, something we don't know.
Magnetic inversion in black holes
Now it is important to note that black holes have no magnetic field technically, and the magnetic field is very important for the occurrence of magnetic reversal. However, the dense plasma surrounding them, the so-called accretion disk, has. When the plasma in the disk rotates around the black hole, the particles in it generate an electric current. So they create a magnetic field.
In the past, scientists have found that these plasma streams do not change spontaneously. So we think their magnetic field is stable. However, if this new discovery is evidence of magnetic inversion in black holes, it may change all this.
Magnetic reversal occurs when the north and south poles of an entity flip. Therefore, the direction of the magnetic field will also be reversed. Similarly, this effect is very common in stars, especially our own sun. Scientists believe that this may be the case based on the observation of galactic flares experienced by supermassive black holes in Es1 1927 + 654 in radio and X-ray images.
One of the main things scientists noticed was that the intensity of X-rays soon disappeared. These X-rays are usually produced by the rotation of charged particles in a magnetic field. Because they disappear very quickly, researchers believe that this may be due to the magnetic reversal in the black hole.
Of course, this is the first time that we humans have observed such an event. So we now know that they can happen. However, we do not know how common they are. We need more observations of black holes to really determine this information.