Jacob Pinter: Can you introduce yourself?
Ron: I’m Dr. Ronald Gamble.
Ron, if you're, you know, for friends we’re cool: Ron.
But I conduct my own research on the physics of supermassive
black holes and the relativistic jets that come off of them.
Jacob: These jets
What are those and how does how are those related to black holes?
Ron: Oh, boy. So that’s ... those and those are very exciting.
Jacob: Okay.
Ron: You can think of them as kind of black hole lasers or lighthouses.
Jacob: Okay. Ron: Right?
So they're coming not inside the black hole because nothing can come out.
Jacob: Yeah. Ron: But they're coming right off the surface. Right?
So there is what's called a photon sphere where all the photons,
the light scatters, it’s kind of like the last illuminated
surface around a black hole where all the light scatters around.
And these things are swirling
all there at the speed of light, and then they get blasted off.
Jacob: Okay
Ron: Part of the reason why they get blasted off is due to the magnetic
fields around black holes. There are still unknown questions as to
why the black hole spews a jet out
and why these particles go from zero to light-speed in an instant.
Jacob: Wow. Ron: Yeah.
So that's part of my research: trying to figure out the why.
Jacob: Yeah Ron: But other than that, the jets, they can be very long.
We're talking 3,000 light-years to 3 million light-years. Jacob: Wow.
So they're very, very long, very bright. Jacob: Sure.
Ron: And the jets pointing directly at us,
those are active galactic nuclei that are called blazars.
Again, it gives us a different perspective, it gives us kind of like a
a down-the-barrel kind of look
on what the jet is doing, what what information it's giving us.
[NASA]