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Jet streams of gas flow from magnetic fields in accretion disks around some black holes. Do these streams give off light?
Apparently jet streams can give off visible light according to the following article dated 7 JAN 2016.
''Nothing - including light - can escape a black hole once it’s fallen in, but the process of swallowing gas, dust, or ripping apart whole stars can cause the formation of an accretion disk near the event horizon. These disks can thrust streams of plasma called relativistic jets across the entire length of a galaxy, while hitting temperatures of 10 million degrees Celsius (18 million degrees Fahrenheit) or more.
This insane heat can cause a black hole accretion disk to give off an incredibly bright glow, which is what Kimura and her team observed when they focussed in on V404 Cygni - an active black hole in the Cygnus constellation that reactivated on 15 June 2015 after 26 years of dormancy.''
''Publishing in Nature today, the team hypothesises that the light originates from X-rays produced in the centre of the accretion disk, and these X-rays irradiate and heat up the outer region of the disk, which causes it to emit optical rays.''
Thank you, Mike. Of all the articles I did read, I didn't read that one. There was another that mentioned x-rays and I wondered if they give off visible light. I think, at the time, I was concentrating more on "magnetic field". At any rate, it clears up what had always seemed contradictory to me - the statement that "nothing can escape a black hole - not even light" - and then news that they'd seen light shooting "from a black hole". It's this accretion disk outside the black hole.
Thank you, Mike. Of all the articles I did read, I didn't read that one. There was another that mentioned x-rays and I wondered if they give off visible light. I think, at the time, I was concentrating more on "magnetic field". At any rate, it clears up what had always seemed contradictory to me - the statement that "nothing can escape a black hole - not even light" - and then news that they'd seen light shooting "from a black hole". It's this accretion disk outside the black hole.
You're welcome Hazel. The Universe is a fascinating place and new discoveries about it are always being made.
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