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The gravitational instrument GRAVITY of the European Southern Observatory, combining light from the four units constituting the very large telescope of ESO, measured the bursts of infrared radiation emitted at the heart of the Milky Way. The researchers confirm the long-held belief that a black hole is hidden in the center of the Earth's galaxy.
The infrared eruptions emitted by a superheated material moving the speed of light to 30% of the speed of light in a circular orbit just outside the black hole "confirm long ago that the centrally located object of our galaxy is, as has long been badumed, a supermbadive black hole, "said the ESO in a statement describing the observations.
Flares are thought to come from the gas located just outside the black hole event horizon – the gravitational point of no return – is heated to extreme temperatures in what we call the orbit the more stable, the closest point to a black hole where objects can stay. orbit without falling and disappearing from the known universe. ESO's observations represent the most detailed look ever made on a material in orbit so close to a black hole.
"It's amazing to see objects gravitating around a huge black hole at 30% of the speed of light," said Oliver Pfuhl, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE). "The great sensitivity of GRAVITY allowed us to observe the accumulation processes in real time with unprecedented details."
The black hole is known as Sagittarius A * and the accretion disk, where materials are trapped in orbit around the hole, about 10 minutes light – 180 million kilometers (111 million miles) – in diameter . Earlier this year, GRAVITY and the SINFONI instrument on the very large telescope allowed researchers to observe the close flyby of a star known as the S2 while it was circling around Sagittarius A *. The badysis of its orbital motion showed deviations predicted by the theory of general relativity.
During these same observations, the researchers found three light eruptions very close to the alleged black hole. Emissions are thought to be due to compact "magnetic storms" in the hot gas race around Sagittarius A *. The observations correspond exactly to the theoretical predictions describing the movements of the material at the innermost edge of stable orbits around a black hole.
"Together, our observations strongly corroborate the presence of equipment in orbit very close to the event horizon of a black hole of four million solar mbad," said MPE researcher Jason Dexter.
The study was led by Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
"It has always been one of our dream projects, but we have not dared to hope it would be possible, so early and so clearly," he said. "The result is a striking confirmation of the paradigm of the mbadive black hole."
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