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Scientists have just had their best look at the accretion disk – a gas halo – that swirls around the supermassive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way.
Existing X-ray observations have shown that the accretion disk of our black hole includes an inner layer of superhot gas, according to Space.com. But this new research, published Wednesday in the newspaper Nature, confirms for the first time that there is a cooler outer gas layer in the accretion disk that masks the rest of the halo, which could help explain the behavior of black holes.
Comparatively cool
According to this study, the recently observed outer layer of gas varies between -280 and 17,500 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the distance to its temperature. This is nothing compared to the inner layer, which can reach a hell of 18 million degrees near the event horizon.
The outer layer of the accretion disk covers the rest of the halo by extending 20,000 times farther from the black hole than the radius of its event horizon.
"If we want to know what processes are important and not important for the feeding of a black hole, we need to know the environment around the well," said Elena Murchikova, an astrophysicist from the US. Institute of Advanced Studies who led the study. Space.com. "But the intake of cold gas on a black hole has never been studied."
READ MORE: The monster black hole of the Milky Way has a halo of cold gas – literally[[[[Space.com]
More about accretion discs: Scientists produce the most accurate black hole simulations ever
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