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There is a monster in the heart of our galaxy. And, for the first time, we saw it feeding.
We know that there are black holes. It's just that we have not actually seen them.
They are black. They are so strong that even the light can not escape.
The best science can therefore hope to capture "the shadow" of a beast such as Sagittarius-A, the supermbadive black hole at the heart of our galaxy, which draws matter around it.
It has now arrived.
Telescopes, finely tuned to scrutinize the gas clouds that separate us from the heart of the galaxy, have spotted something "wavering" in a narrow circle. It moves so fast and in such a tight orbit that it is at the limit of the laws of physics.
This means that everything that this brilliant drop is wobbling breaks these laws.
It means a black hole.
It turns to 323 million kmh at the edge of space and time lose their meaning. By looking at it, astronomers hope to learn what is really happening at this point of intersection.
But he has already given us our best insight into what a black hole looks like.
"Astronomers probably think that the existence of the black hole itself is old," said astrophysicist Monash University, Michael Brown. "What's fun is how close we are to the event horizon."
But the best is perhaps still to come.
"New Event Horizon telescope results should appear on the horizon – it should be even closer – we are really looking into the abyss here.
SAGGITARIUS A
Like almost all galaxies, we know that there is a supermbadive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way. Its gravity equates to about four million suns.
It's far away. Approximately 25,000 light-years.
But it's brilliant. Interstellar gas accelerates as it approaches it. When the gas particles jostle, it creates friction – and a glow – when it swirls in an accretion disk.
The challenge is to look through this huge cloud to see the true point of no return. The horizon of events.
In 15 years of observations, astronomers have noticed a particular point in this gas cloud that glitters in a dazzling way. Sometimes it lights up about 30 times more than normal – but only for about 5 minutes.
The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, follows these lightning bolts. They managed to do it with incredible precision.
It moves in the direction of the needles of a watch. It travels at about a third of the speed of light. And, during the three months, he drew the shape of a small circle.
So, what could possibly produce such lightning?
According to astronomers, it could be "hot spots": magnetically heated plasma plates stretched to the breaking point in the last possible position for a secure orbit. Beyond this point, everything begins irreversibly to collapse until the event horizon itself.
Beyond the horizon of events, reality itself disappears.
"We are looking at about 7.5 times the volume of the black hole – horizon horizon of events," Brown said. "In other words, if the horizon of events has a radius of 6 million km, we look at data 45 million kilometers from the black hole." This may seem like a lot, but for comparison, the Sun is only 150 million kilometers from the Earth, so close to us that it moves at a third of the speed of light! "
This is not the overheated plasma itself that generates the flashes.
This is the gravitational lens of the black hole itself, which is to rotate the space-time to focus a portion of the energy emitted by the plasma in the air. space, in the manner of a projector.
SNARED BY GRAVITY
Things get strange around black holes. That's why astronomers are so eager to watch it.
They hope that their observations will shed light on the theories of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Everything about black holes is infinite. And infinity does not add up.
So, in Chile, telescopes have powered a new tool called GRAVITY, all they see from the heart of the galaxy.
As part of the network of very large telescopes managed by the European Southern Observatory, the four 9 m telescopes combine their recordings in real time, thus constituting the virtual equivalent of a telescope of 70 m of diameter.
Flares have already been seen coming out of Sagittarius A.
But, with this new resolution, they were able to follow the charged plasma flashes to the point where – if it accelerates – its gravity increases to a point where it irrevocably pulls it into the black hole.
This "provides the long-awaited confirmation that the object at the center of our galaxy is, as has long been badumed, a supermbadive black hole," reads in a press release. # 39; ESO.
Reinhard Genze, director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, said: "It was always one of our dream projects, but we did not dare hope it would be possible sooner."
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