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As material skates from the outer to inner edge of the disk, magnetic field lines perpendicular to the disk get twisted, propelling and confining particles of matter. The situation gets really extreme at the black hole's mouth, which tugs at the magnetic fields along with everything else at the precipice. Astrophysicists predicted that material zipping around in this region would follow corkscrew-shaped paths inside the bundle of twisted magnetic fields. They also guessed that the spinning, coiled mass would brighten when its path of rotation was directly aligned with Earth and that there would be a final flare when it blasted into a shock wave. "That is exactly what we saw," said Boston University astronomer Alan Marscher, who led an international team of scientists that announced their findings in this week's issue of the journal Nature. Between late 2005 and early 2006, Marscher and colleagues watched as a knot of material was ejected outward from the blazer through a jet. Using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Long Baseline Array and other telescopes, the astronomers discovered bright bursts of light, X-rays and gamma rays exactly when and where predicted. "We got an unprecedented view," Marscher said, adding that the observations are important to understanding how these natural particle accelerators work. Related Links: |
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