Author: Charles Q. Choi, Space.com contributor
Date Written: March 24, 2011
Title: Famous black Hole Sheds New Light on Warped Space, Magnetic Fields
Subject Area: Black Holes, Astroph.
Source Website: http://www.space.com/11222-black-holes-cygnus-warped-space.html
---Summary---
Polarized light reveals evidence of strong magnetic fields near black holes, which have been theorized but not seen. Emission from the first discovered black hole, Cygnus X-1 includes thermal emisson from the 120 million degree C corona as well as another source, identified in this article as synchrotron radiation. Synchrotron radiation is produced by strong magnetic fields. Polarized light is light which vibrates in one direction...
---My Reaction---
This 'sheds some light' on how polarimetry is used, although I did not investigate closely why exactly polarimetry showed this vs. a CCD.
---Questions---
What does it mean for light ot vibrate in one direction?
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