A hundred years before the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released the first image of a black hole in 2019—located at the heart of the galaxy M87—astronomer Heber Curtis had already discovered a strange jet protruding from the galaxy’s center. Today, we know this to be the jet of the black hole M87*. Such jets are also emitted by other black holes. Theoretical astrophysicists at Goethe University have now developed a numerical code to describe with high mathematical precision how black holes transform their rotational energy into such ultra-fast jets.
How black holes produce powerful relativistic jets
