Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

How Young Galaxies Grew Magnetic Fields Faster Than Expected?

Magnetic fields are invisible threads weaving through galaxies, shaping the behavior of stars, gas, and plasma. For decades, astronomers believed that forming these vast, ordered magnetic fields across thousands of light-years would take billions of years. Yet, recent observations of young galaxies tell a different story: they already host strong magnetic fields much earlier than theory predicts. How is this possible? A new study published in Physical Review Letters offers a fascinating explanation, suggesting that galaxy formation itself may accelerate magnetic field growth far faster than previously thought.

The Cosmic Puzzle of Magnetic Fields

Almost all visible matter in the universe exists in the form of plasma—a hot, ionized gas made up of charged particles. Plasma is highly responsive to magnetic and electric forces, and its motion can stir existing magnetic fields. Scientists have long used the dynamo theory to explain the origin of cosmic magnetic fields. According to this theory, the turbulent motion of plasma—caused by rotation, temperature differences, or gravitational forces—can amplify weak magnetic fields over time.

However, dynamo theory comes with limitations. “It struggles to explain observations of young galaxies with robust magnetic fields across thousands of light-years,” says Pallavi, an assistant professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) and one of the authors of the study. Observations show that some galaxies developed significant magnetic fields when the universe was only a fraction of its current age—a timescale far shorter than classical dynamo theory would allow.

Collapsing Clouds: Nature’s Magnetic Accelerator

The breakthrough in the new study lies in reconsidering the dynamo process during galaxy formation. Galaxies form from the collapse of massive clouds of ionized gas under gravity. During this collapse, gravity itself can stir the plasma, creating turbulent motions that dramatically enhance the growth of magnetic fields.

Irshad, a graduate student at ICTS and lead author of the study, explains: “When the galaxy is forming, gravity acts like a giant spoon stirring the plasma. This stirring amplifies the magnetic fields more efficiently than previously recognized.”

Through detailed analytic calculations, the team demonstrated that the collapse of these clouds alters the turbulence in the plasma. In turbulent flows, eddies—swirling motions similar to those in rivers and streams—play a crucial role in generating magnetic fields. The faster these eddies rotate, the faster the magnetic field grows.

Remarkably, as the cloud collapses, the turnover rate of these eddies increases. This leads to what the researchers call a “super-exponential” growth in magnetic fields. In other words, instead of growing slowly over billions of years, the magnetic fields can reach strong, ordered states much faster. Numerical simulations confirmed that the resulting magnetic fields are not only faster to form but also stronger than standard dynamo models predict.

A Mathematical Lens for Collapsing Galaxies

To model this accelerated growth, the team employed a clever mathematical framework called supercomoving coordinates. In cosmology, these coordinates help account for the universe’s expansion, simplifying calculations for evolving systems. “Supercomoving coordinates essentially transform the equations of a collapsing galaxy into the form of a static galaxy, making calculations more straightforward,” says Irshad.

This approach works particularly well for uniformly collapsing, spherical clouds. However, the team notes that real galaxies are more complex, with irregular shapes and uneven gas distribution. Extending the model to account for these complexities will be an important step for future research.

Implications for Cosmic Evolution

Understanding magnetic field growth isn’t just an academic exercise—it has real implications for how galaxies evolve. Although magnetic forces are typically weaker than gravity, they can influence gas dynamics, star formation, and cosmic structure over long timescales.

Pallavi emphasizes that this research helps refine one of cosmology’s fundamental questions: the timescale of magnetic field formation in galaxies. “By predicting how fast magnetic fields establish themselves, we can test and improve models of galaxy and structure formation,” she says. Essentially, knowing when magnetic fields appear allows scientists to understand their subtle role in shaping the universe.

Moreover, this study challenges the traditional view that magnetic fields are minor players in the early universe. If strong, ordered magnetic fields emerged quickly, they may have been quietly guiding the evolution of galaxies, stars, and cosmic gas from the universe’s youth.

Looking Ahead

While the study provides a compelling explanation for the rapid growth of magnetic fields in young galaxies, many questions remain. Future research will explore more realistic scenarios of collapsing galaxies, including asymmetric and fragmented clouds. Additionally, computational models of galaxy formation can incorporate these findings to better match observations of magnetic fields in distant galaxies.

The work also opens new avenues in observational astronomy. Astronomers can now look for signatures of accelerated magnetic field growth in early galaxies, testing whether the theory aligns with reality. If confirmed, this would represent a major advance in understanding how the universe evolved from a chaotic soup of plasma into the structured galaxies we see today.

In summary, the study by Irshad, Pallavi, and their team reveals that the very process of galaxy formation—plasma clouds collapsing under gravity—can act as a natural accelerator for magnetic field growth. Through super-exponential amplification, young galaxies could develop vast, ordered magnetic fields much faster than previously believed. These findings not only solve a long-standing cosmic puzzle but also highlight the intricate interplay of gravity, plasma turbulence, and magnetism in shaping our universe.

The next time we gaze at a spiral galaxy with its majestic, sweeping arms, we may also be witnessing the invisible influence of magnetic fields that sprang to life in the universe’s earliest epochs, quietly guiding cosmic evolution.

Reference: Muhammed Irshad P. et al., Turbulent Dynamos in a Collapsing Cloud, Physical Review Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1103/fp1v-xrr5. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2503.19131

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more