Since Albert Einstein’s proposed the existence of black holes in 1916, many details of these massive forces of nature have remained a mystery. Since the first discovery of a black hole in 1971, scientists have dedicated entire careers to the study of these regions of spacetime. But because they exhibit such strong gravitational force, no particles can escape their pull, making them nearly impossible to observe. More recently, we’ve discovered that black holes are much more common than previously thought. Although we know magnetism plays a large role in their behavior, we are only scratching the surface in terms of the amount involved. With the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (or ALMA), scientists can now observe the intensity of the magnetism surrounding these mysterious stellar objects. And, hopefully, this research can help them them better understand why black holes inhabit the centers of galaxies. The Role of Magnetism According to the scientists operating ALMA, the magnetism of the black hole they observed, PKS 1830-211, is more powerful than anything previously detected at the center of a galaxy. Even more curious is the fact that it exists extremely close to the “event horizon,” or the boundary of the region from which no escape is possible. This may also offer insight to how black holes form. Even more than traditional black holes, supermassive black holes are extremely dense. Though not nearly as large, they often contain masses billions of times more than the  Sun. Their surrounding disc continues to swallow matter, feeding it directly into the black hole. The most interesting piece of this is that some can escape just before being enveloped, causing them to be flung into space at nearly the speed of light in the form of plasma. Magnetic fields act closely to the event horizon. Though we’ve suspected they have a role in this process, with the help of ALMA, we can finally observe this phenomenon. Learn more about the recent observation of PKS 1830-211 and how magnetism affected supermassive black holes.