Takeways in the middle of the Milky Way
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The black hole supermajero called Sagittarius A* is located in the middle of the Milky Way.
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The observations of S2 and other stars also helped astronomers calculate the extraordinary size and mass of Sagittarius A* and weighs approximately 4.3 million solar masses.
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Although the entire Milky Way, our solar system included, Sagittarius Orbits A*, we are not in danger of being absorbed.
If you point out a telescope in the Just Night sky sector, in the Sagittarius constellation near where it limits with Scorpio, you will be looking at the heart of the Milky Way. At 26,000 light years away, a telescope is needed to distinguish something different.
But there, right in the middle of our galaxy, there is one of the most impressive objects of the universe: a supermassive black hole, or SmbH, called Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius a star”).
The center of the Milky Way
Of course, there is an unavoidable challenge for anyone who wants to investigate their mysteries. “The problem of trying to understand the supermassive black holes is that we cannot see them,” says Brian Mcnamara, an astronomer from the University of Waterloo.
The gravitational attraction of Sagittarius A* is too strong for the light to escape and reach us, it is invisible by definition. What you can see is your accretion disc, a gas, dust and plasma ring that surrounds the central vacuum.
In May 2022, the collaboration of the Event Horizon Event Telescope was launched The first image of Sagittarius A*which seems disturbingly like a blurred eye of Sauron.
Read more: This is what would happen if you walked through a black hole
How do we know there is a black hole
However, the scientific community knew about our friendly neighborhood SmbH long before they obtained this visual confirmation. Sagittarius A* was discovered indirectly in 1974, when astronomers Bruce Balkan and Robert L. Brown detected an unusually strong radio signal from that region of space.
In the next two decades, scientists inferred their existence as The behavior of nearby stars – Especially one called S2, which whips Sagittarius a* at amazing speeds.
How far is Sagittarius to*?
To put things in perspective with an example of our own solar system: Jupiter is approximately 5 times further from the sun than the earth, and its orbit takes approximately 12 years of the earth. S2, on the contrary, is found 120 times further from Sagittarius A* than the land of the Sun. However, it completes its orbit in 16 years, just a little more than Jupiter.
In its closest approach to Sagittarius A*, S2 extends to almost 5,000 miles per second, almost 3 percent the speed of light (the earth travels to a miserable 18.5 miles per second). Long before the Horizon telescope of the event provided evidence, almost all were convinced that the orbit of S2, the fastest known, could only be due to the tremendous gravitational attraction of a SMBH.
The size of the supermassive black holes
The observations of S2 and other stars also helped astronomers calculate the extraordinary size and mass of Sagittarius A*. Most black holes are formed when huge stars, many times the size of our sun, collapse. But even those giants are embarrassed by the Smbhs, which are believed to be formed when black spiral garden variety holes with each other.
After many iterations, these mergers can result in a giant like sagittarius A*, with a weight of approximately 4.3 million solar masses.
In terms of volume, the SMBH remain tiny compared to the galaxies that inhabit: “Apart from an object of the size of a grape […] compared to an object of the size of the earth, ”says McNamara.
But they are incredibly massive, representing approximately one thousandth of the total mass of their galaxy. As such, these heavy cosmic weights exert enormous strength especially around them, their sphere of influence that extends thousands of years of light.
Read more: This is how a black hole sounds
Could we get into the black hole?
When matter falls into orbit around a SMBH, friction raises its temperature to billion degrees. The energy generated in that process sometimes launches overheated plasma jets into the galaxy, where they circulate, preventing hydrogen clouds and helium from cooling enough to collapse in stars.
In that way, a SMBH is like the dark lord in the center of his domain. Although the entire Milky Way, our solar system included, Sagittarius Orbits A*, we are not in danger of being absorbed.
Despite the immense power of a supermassive black hole, objects can maintain a stable orbit around it, as the earth does it around the sun. That said, black holes have a reputation for engulfing a matter that extends too close, and sagittarius a* is no exception.
For years, scientists referred to him as “inactive”, but to Nature Article published in 2023 He showed that, sometimes, he wakes up to swallow an unfortunate cloud of gas and dust. “Imagine a bear in hibernation after devouring everything around it,” said Principal Author Frederic Marin at that time.
An active sagittarius A*
When sufficient matter enters the album of accumulation of a SMBH, it becomes, paradoxically, one of the most dazzling places in the universe, a quasar.
In challenge to the severity of the black hole, these hyperactive objects emit ardent plasma jets that can eclipse entire galaxies.
At present, Sagittarius A* is more dim than a quasar by many orders of magnitude. But Marin’s team discovered that only 200 years ago, without time on an astronomical scale, exploded enough to rival some of the luminous galaxies. Who knows when your current dream will end?
Read more: The oldest black hole could wreak havoc on a distant galaxy
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