The Event Horizon Telescope has for the first time detected the magnetic fields that surround Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy

Physicists have been claiming since 1980 that in the center of the Milky Way there is a supermassive black hole, but its first "photos" were obtained only two years ago (and one more now) - thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

This time astronomers observed for the first time Sagittarius A, located at a distance of about 27 thousand light years from Earth, in polarized light and captured twisted magnetic fields surrounding it - which remarkably resemble another "snapshot". In fact, the only way to “photograph” a black hole is to depict the shadow casting the light when it bends under the influence of the object's powerful gravitational field. EHT, which depicts the supermassive black hole M87.

Astronomers hypothesize that strong and well-organized magnetic fields may be common to all black holes. In addition, because the magnetic fields of M87 cause powerful streams or "jets" - Sagittarius A may have its own hidden but weaker jet.

“This new image, together with the remarkably similar polarization structure that can be seen in the much larger and more powerful black hole M87, shows that strong and organized magnetic fields are crucial for how black holes interact with gas and matter around them,” says Sara Issaoun, co-lead researcher and member of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

EHT is not just a telescope, it is a whole array of observatories scattered all over the world: the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, the 30-meter IRAM telescope, the IRAM NOEMA observatory, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, the Large Millimeter Telescope, the Submillimeter Array, the Submillimeter Telescope, the South Pole Telescope (SPT), the Kitt Peak Observatory and the Greenland Telescope.