The Eye of Sauron: CfA Astronomers Play Key Function in Cosmic Discovery, Fixing a Long-Standing Blazar Thriller | Center for Astrophysics

As a part of a global group of researchers, astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian helped obtain a breakthrough in understanding how a blazar with a slow-moving jet could possibly be one of many brightest sources of high-energy gamma rays and cosmic neutrinos ever noticed. 

The ensuing picture, which is the primary to straight reveal any such magnetic discipline construction, resembles an orange-red eye wreathed in flames: the Eye of Sauron from the legendary Lord of the Rings trilogy.  

The findings are published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters.

Located roughly 7.4 billion light-years from Earth, blazar PKS 1424+240— a kind of lively galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black gap that launches a jet of plasma shifting at practically the velocity of sunshine— has lengthy baffled astronomers. It stands out because the brightest identified neutrino-emitting blazar within the sky and glows in very high-energy gamma rays noticed by ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. 

Yet, oddly, its radio jet appeared to maneuver sluggishly, contradicting expectations that solely the quickest jets can energy such intense high-energy emissions.

Now, thanks to fifteen years of ultra-precise radio observations from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), researchers have stitched collectively a deep picture of this jet at unparalleled decision.

“We were absolutely stunned to see such a striking image of a blazar jet – this is the first image of its kind that directly reveals the magnetic field structure within the jet cone,” mentioned Alexander Plavin, an astronomer at CfA and post-doctoral fellow on the Black Hole Initiative. “It’s like looking straight into the Eye of Sauron.”

Yuri Kovalev, lead writer of the examine and principal investigator of the ERC-funded MuSES mission on the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) added, “We have never seen anything quite like it — a donut-shaped magnetic field with a jet, pointing straight at us.”

Because the jet is coincidentally aligned nearly precisely within the path of Earth, its high-energy emission is dramatically amplified by the results of particular relativity.

“The half-degree alignment boosts the jet brightness by a factor of more than 30,” defined Alexander Plavin. “At the same time, the jet appears to move slowly because almost all its motion happens towards us — a classic optical illusion.”

This head-on geometry allowed scientists to see straight into the center of the blazar’s jet — a particularly uncommon alternative. Radio alerts helped the group map out the construction of the jet’s magnetic discipline, revealing its doubtless donut-like form. This construction performs a key function in launching and collimating the plasma circulate, and could also be important for accelerating particles to excessive energies.

“This discovery helps explain why this blazar is such a powerful neutrino producer – ranking as the second-strongest neutrino source in IceCube’s analysis,” mentioned Plavin. “Moving ahead, we’re working to establish and characterize your complete inhabitants of blazars that collectively generate the high-energy neutrino flux we observe on Earth.

This end result strengthens the hyperlink between relativistic jets, high-energy neutrinos, and the function of magnetic fields in shaping cosmic accelerators — marking a milestone in multimessenger astronomy.

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is a collaboration between Harvard and the Smithsonian designed to ask, and in the end reply, humanity’s biggest unresolved questions in regards to the nature of the universe. The CfA is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with analysis services throughout the U.S. and world wide.

 

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