What is Polarization? | Event Horizon Telescope

Light is an oscillating electromagnetic wave. If the waves have a preferred direction of oscillation, they are polarized. In space, moving hot gas, or ‘plasma’, threaded by a magnetic field emits polarized light. The polarized light rays that manage to escape the pull of the black hole travel to a distant camera. The intensity of those light rays and their direction are what we observe with the Event Horizon Telescope.

Today, we reveal a breakthrough discovery: the Event Horizon Telescope has imaged polarized light close to the shadow of M87* for the very first time. Using this knowledge, we can map out the magnetic fields that surround the black hole, and connect them to the powerful jet of plasma it ejects.



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Credit:
Producers: Radboud University, Goethe University Frankfurt
Director: Sara Issaoun
Writers: Sara Issaoun, Monika Moscibrodzka, Raquel Fraga Encinas, Christiaan Brinkerink, Hector Olivares, Freek Roelofs
Editors: Sara Issaoun, Raquel Fraga Encinas, RU EHT Group, Polarimetry Working Group, and Outreach Working Group
Narrator: Nicola Barber
Animation: Fiks Film
Animation Director: Nelis Claassen
Funded with support from the European Research Council, Radboud University Nijmegen, and Goethe University Frankfurt. Realised under the auspices of the Event Horizon Telescope.

[loeuvrededieu]

Right, I'm a little confused why the final animation shows unpolarized waves from the black hole reaching the camera

[faridasafarova]

Is it possible to visually see (a nacked eye) the difference between the polarized and unpolarized light?

[ScientificReview]

I am confused, but why the polarized but not unpolarized light can escape from the black hole?

Note that, you cannot understand the magnetic filed of black hole without polarized light. If the telescope receives mixed polarization, however, then, we will possibly fail to determine the accurate magnetic filed!

[ankan.neutrinos]

Thanks for the animation, such a great video. 🤎

[cute_spy]

Who is studying this in class 8 like me 😅😅

[NewzAndReviewz]

Youtube = 600$ every 30, 000 views. Ak been eating everyday since diddy he on schedule for 2-3 bands a day