The huge gamma-ray burst could be evidence that black holes can be harnessed by energy

Published:

June 1, 2021 00:48 GMT

According to a group of astrophysicists, rotating black holes can create an electric field that accelerates particles to obtain radiation and cosmic rays.

Recorded in January 2019, huge GRB 190114C gamma-ray burst A black hole shows that this phenomenon could be a tremendous source of energy, the study authors say Published Last Thursday in the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Events of this nature can reach a luminosity similar to that of all observable stars in the universe. Although “gamma-ray bursts are believed to be driven by black holes of stellar mass,” the mechanism that triggers them has always been “unknown”, Release From the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network (ICRANet).

There is a new theory that makes it possible to explain it with a supernova model, born from the collision of two stars, one made of carbon and oxygen and the other made of neutrons. In this case, the particles are accelerated along the magnetic field lines inherited from the neutron star. This field extracts rotational energy from the black hole’s atmosphere.

“A rotating black hole, by interacting with the surrounding magnetic field, creates an electric field that accelerates electrons in the environment to produce high-energy radiation and super-energy cosmic rays,” the process described in the statement.

Regarding the most important features of this “new machine”, ICRANet notes that the nature of the emissions depends on “the physical process that leads to the formation of electric and magnetic fields and a black hole”. It is not continuous but separate, although it is repeated in short periods that we cannot distinguish between them currently.