2001 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| NEW ENERGY SOURCE TAPS POWER FROM BLACK HOLE SPIN | G01-066 | 10/15/01 | 00:04:51 | Black holes in space are notorious as the ultimate consumers, swallowing everything that crosses their paths, but scientists for the first time have seen energy escape a black hole. Magnetic fields surrounding a black hole take energy contained in the black hole's spin and transfer it to surrounding gas, generating power like a massive celestial flywheel. The black hole power transfer makes the gas, already intensely hot due to the crushing force of the black hole's gravity, even hotter. An international team of astronomers observed the novel "power tapping" around a supermassive black hole in the core of a galaxy named MCG 6-30-15 using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray satellite. The observation also may explain the origin of particle jets in quasars, remote celestial beacons that shine with the light of trillions of Suns and are thought to be energized by supermassive black holes.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Power-Tapping Black Hole Animation (two versions) - Gravity in the region of the black hole appears to be so intense that the very fabric of space twists around the black hole, dragging magnetic field lines along with it. The magnetic fields tighten about the black hole, slowing its spin. This 'friction' heats the region to even higher temperatures. According to theory, rotational energy can escape from the black hole as it is braked by magnetic fields. The first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy) states that energy lost from the black hole must be absorbed by the region around it. The energy lost to the black hole in MCG 6-30-15 is transferred to the inner edge of the accretion disk, a flow of gas swirling around and eventually falling into the black hole. The energy transfer causes the gas to shine even more brightly. In the animation, the rate at which the black hole slows down is greatly exaggerated to illustrate the concept.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (2): Spinning Black Hole Animation (G01-036) - In May 2001 at the American Physical Society meeting, Dr. Tod Strohmayer of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., presented the first solid evidence of a spinning stellar-sized black hole. This XMM-Newton observation provides the first strong evidence, by virtue of the energy transfer, that supermassive black holes can spin as well. ASCA, a Japanese X-ray satellite, found possible evidence of a spinning black hole in 1994, but many astronomers remained skeptical of the observation because of its low signal-to-noise ratio. Almost every kind of object in space spins, such as planets, stars, galaxies. With black holes, it's much harder to directly see they are spinning, because they don't have a solid surface that you can watch spin around. We can, however, see the light emitted from matter plunging into the black hole. The matter, cannibalized from the black holes binary companion star, whips frantically around the black hole before it is lost forever.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (3): Bending Space And Time - The Spinning Black Hole (G01-036) - A spinning black hole modifies the fabric of spacetime near it. The spinning allows matter to orbit at a closer distance than if it were not spinning, and the closer matter can get the faster it can orbit. These animations examine a spinning black hole. The spacetime fabric, represented by the grid overlay, is bent.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (4): A Non Spinning Black Hole (G01-036) - These animations show a non spinning black hole. Note that spacetime fabric, represented by the grid overlay is not bent.
Courtesy: NASA
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