A rotating black hole dragging magnetic field lines (VIDEO)

Princeton University

Caption

An animation showing how the magnetic field crossing the black hole’s event horizon twists up as as the black hole rotates more quickly. A faster-rotating black hole `winds up’ the magnetic field more quickly, causing the black hole to lose more energy to its surroundings. A team of Princeton astrophysicists observed the wind-up of magnetic field lines in images from the Event Horizon Telescope of the linear polarization from black holes.

Credit

Video by George Wong, Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University

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