Milky Way black hole seems to be hungry

According to researchers, the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy suddenly spoils, according to the researchers, who can not explain why he so suddenly so hungry.

"We have never seen anything like this for 24 years as we study the supermassive black hole," said Andrea Ghez, professor at UCLA, co-lead author of the study, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. "It's usually a rather calm black hole and wimpy in a diet. We do not know what motivates this great feast. "

Black holes eat meals of dust and cosmic gas, sometimes stolen from the stars. Their seemingly unlimited consumption of space matter causes the emission of a huge amount of energy (radiation) through the vortex, which gives the black hole its characteristic ring of light.

On May 13, the team of researchers discovered that the glowing area around the black hole event horizon – the "point of no return" – was shining twice as fast. Ghez calls this discovery "unprecedented" and scientists wonder if the phenomenon marks a singular event or the beginning of a new phase for the galactic giant.

"The big question is whether the black hole enters a new phase – for example, if the male end has been raised and the black hole gas drop rate has increased for an extended period – or if we have just seen the fireworks of some unusual drops of gasoline, "said Mark Morris, professor at UCLA and co-lead author.

Our nearest black hole, called Sagittarius A * or Sgr A *, was so exceptionally brilliant that the lead author, Tuan Do, initially confused it with the nearby star S0-2. They now hypothesize that the sudden brightness brightness could have been caused by the recent S0-2 contact with the celestial void in 2018. A similar theory involving an interstellar object known as G2 , supposed to be two stars glued one to the other, would have also been dismantled. of star matter at a meeting with Sgr A * in 2014.

Morris adds that the rare pyrotechnics may have also been tasty pieces of asteroids that crossed the path of Sgr A *.

The researchers assured us that our nearest black hole was still not hungry enough to threaten humanity. At about 26,000 light-years away, Do says the light they observed should be 10 billion times brighter to have an impact on life on Earth.

Earlier this summer, the same UCLA team showed how the recent interactions between S0-2 and the black hole support Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity of 1915.