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Nasa news video12/27/2023 Remarkably, he added, initial analysis of the polarization data from IXPE appeared to show it dropped to zero between the first and second observations. “So, we planned several observations of the blazar, with the first showing a constant polarization of 15%.” “We had anticipated that the polarization direction might change but we thought large rotations would be rare, based on previous optical observations of many blazars,” said Herman Marshall, research physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and a co-author of the paper. IXPE found surprising variability in the polarization angle during three prolonged observations of Markarian 421 in May and June 2022. But scientists did not expect that the helix structure would contain regions of particles being accelerated by shocks. Research models for the typical outflow of the powerful jets typically depict a spiraling helix structure, similar to the way human DNA is organized. But IXPE’s groundbreaking X-ray polarimetry – which measures the average direction of the electric field of light waves – gives them an unprecedented view of these targets, their physical geometry, and where their emissions originate. That’s why blazars can outshine all of the stars of the galaxies they inhabit.ĭespite decades of study, scientists still don’t fully grasp the physical processes that shape the dynamics and emission of blazar jets. Blazar jets are extra bright because, just like an ambulance siren sounds louder as it approaches, light pointed toward us also appears brighter. They are especially bright because as particles approach the speed of light, they give off a tremendous amount of energy and behave in weird ways that Einstein predicted. Jets like the one beaming out of Markarian 421 can extend millions of light-years in length. The new study detailing the IXPE team’s findings at Markarian 421 is available in the latest edition of Nature Astronomy. “We were sure the blazar would be a worthwhile target for IXPE, but its discoveries were beyond our best expectations, successfully demonstrating how X-ray polarimetry enriches our ability to probe the complex magnetic field geometry and particle acceleration in different regions of relativistic jets.” “Markarian 421 is an old friend for high-energy astronomers,” said Italian Space Agency astrophysicist Laura Di Gesu, lead author of the new paper. X-rays are generated in the white region nearest the shock front, whereas optical and radio emission must originate from more turbulent regions further away from the shock. IXPE observations have shown that the X-rays must be generated in a shock originating within material spiraling around the helical magnetic fields. Helical magnetic fields are threaded through the jet. The jet is powered by an accretion disk, shown at the bottom of the image, which orbits and falls into the black hole over time. This NASA illustration shows the structure of a black hole jet as inferred by recent observations of the blazar Markarian 421 by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). This blazar, located in the constellation Ursa Major, roughly 400 million light-years from Earth, surprised scientists with evidence that in the part of the jet where particles are being accelerated, the magnetic field has a helical structure. This week, an international team of astrophysicists published new findings from IXPE about a blazar called Markarian 421. IXPE measures a special property of X-ray light called polarization, which has to do with the organization of electromagnetic waves at X-ray frequencies. To understand why particles in the jet move with great speeds and energies, scientists look to NASA’s IXPE ( Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer), which launched in December 2021. When one of those jets points directly at Earth, scientists call the black hole system a blazar. The universe is full of powerful supermassive black holes that create powerful jets of high-energy particles, creating sources of extreme brightness in the vastness of space. An international team of astrophysicists, using new data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), published findings about the blazar called Markarian 421 – which offered some surprising results.
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