PREVIEW

Spectacular New Image Shows Milky Way Black Hole's Magnetic Fields. Scientists have taken us from the Earth to the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) with a spectacular new image of its magnetic fields. Using Chile's ALMA telescope, and others that are a part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, they zoomed into the heart of our galaxy. They switched from visible to infrared light to peer through the dense clouds of dust in this region. You can see some stars orbiting very close to Sgr A*, observed with ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer before finally, you arrive at Sagittarius A* and the centre of our galaxy. The first image of this black hole was released in 2022. The swirling lines overlaid in this new image mark the orientation of polarisation which is linked to the shape of the magnetic field around the black hole.