What is Polarization? | Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)

[For subtitles press CC]

Light is an oscillating electromagnetic wave. If the waves have a preferred direction of oscillation, they are polarized. In space, moving hot gas, or ‘plasma’, threaded by a magnetic field emits polarized light. The polarized light rays that manage to escape the pull of the black hole travel to a distant camera. The intensity of those light rays and their direction are what we observe with the Event Horizon Telescope.
Today, we reveal a breakthrough discovery: the Event Horizon Telescope has imaged polarized light close to the shadow of M87* for the very first time. Using this knowledge, we can map out the magnetic fields that surround the black hole, and connect them to the powerful jet of plasma it ejects.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an international collaboration that captured the first image of a black hole by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. To learn more: https://eventhorizontelescope.org/
Twitter:   / ehtelescope  
Facebook:   / ehtelescope  
Instagram:   / ehtelescope  

BLACKHOLECAM is the European branch of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. Learn more: https://blackholecam.org
Twitter:   / blackholecam  
Facebook:   / ercblackholecam  

** If you enjoyed this video, please like, comment, and subscribe! **

CREDITS:
Producers: Radboud University, Goethe University Frankfurt.
Director: Sara Issaoun.
Writers: Sara Issaoun, Monika Moscibrodzka, Raquel Fraga-Encinas, Christiaan Brinkerink, Hector Olivares, Freek Roelofs
Editors: Sara Issaoun, Raquel Fraga-Encinas, RU EHT Group, Polarimetry Working Group, and Outreach Working Group.
Narrator: Nicola Barber.
Animation: Fiks Film.
Animation Director: Nelis Claassen.
Funded with support from the European Research Council, Radboud University Nijmegen, and Goethe University Frankfurt. Realised under the auspices of the Event Horizon Telescope.