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When scientists released the very first image of a black hole last week, people immediately began to wonder why astronomers had chosen to focus on M87 *, a black hole located in a distant galaxy, instead from the one in the center of our house, the Milky Way.
For that, we may have to thank an ultra-dense neutron star the size of Manhattan, also known as magnetar, which blocks the view, according to Science live.
Perfect timing
In 2013, astronomers struggled to observe the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A *, when the magnetar suddenly ignited, completely blocking the black hole.
"At first, the great enthusiasm was:" A sacred cow, SagA * has gone completely crazy! "," Said McGill astronomer Daryl Haggard. Science live. "It would have been the brightest rocket ever seen since the supermassive black hole."
Improve! Improve!
A few days later, an orbital telescope called the Chandra X-ray Observatory was able to take high-resolution recordings that showed it was the neutron star and not the black hole.
"According to your point of view, it was either a total pain or a completely impressive new discovery," Taggard said. Science live.
The magnetar has since disappeared and more and more telescopes can see it as well as the black hole as separate entities. But all the same, the unfortunate timing of the star shows how our attempts to study the cosmos depend on a cooperative universe.
READ MORE: A tiny bright magneto photobombing in the supermassive black hole of our galaxy[[[[Science live]
More on the image of the black hole: This is how the M87 black hole is compared to the Earth
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