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- The scientists provided the first confirmation that what is at the center of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole.
- The discovery attracted the interaction of gases and a small star revolving around the mysterious object.
- This is considered irrefutable proof of the central role of the black hole in a galaxy.
At the center of the Milky Way, about 25,000 light-years away, is a small source of radio noise. It's huge, estimated at the equivalent of 4.14 million suns. Astronomers have long suspected that it is a supermassive black hole, which they named "Sagittarius A *". The European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced this week that an international collaboration led by Reinhard Genzel Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) brought together the greatest number definitive proof that's exactly what Sagittarius A * is.
Although astronomers can not directly observe a black hole – light does not escape him – they couldHowever, be able to see some of what is happening around you. Genzel and other scientists around the world gathered information about a small star called "S2" and the gas belt, or accretion disk, which revolves around Sagittarius A *. It is in the interaction between the two that lies the new discovery, made possible through a breakthrough in the field of imaging.
The breakthrough of imaging
Photo credit: MPE / GRAVITY team
ESO has a network of four telescopes, the very large telescope (VLT) of Paranal Observatory, culminating at 2635 meters altitude in the desert of Atacama in Chile. The incredible device that finally allowed the team to confirm the identity of Sagittarius A * is based on Paranal telescopes. This is called "GRAVITY, "and he combines the four into one interferometer which has the resolution of a single mirror resolution of a single mirror of 130 meters in diameter. "Suddenly, we can see 1,000 times less clear than before," Genzel said when using GRAVITY.
S2 and redshift
Image Source: ESO / MEP / S. Gillessen
Every 16 years, a young blue star nicknamed "S2" or "S-02" completes an elongated orbit that brings it dangerously close to Sagittarius A *, about 11 billion miles.
Many scientists believe that general relativity can predict black holes – which Einstein himself was not convinced. (They were finally confirmed a few years ago when two black holes collided.) Einstein's theory, however, also predicts that if S2 is orbiting a black hole, the speed of the light waves that bounce when it approaches Sagittarius A * should slow down, bringing the light back to red. .
In July of this year, Genzel's team ad that they had observed via GRAVITY the center of the Milky Way and had seen the predicted redshift, allowing them to locate the closest approach from S2 to Sagittarius A *. New York Times reports that the results were read at the Munich announcement, the hall broke under applause.
Accretion disc flares
Simulation of eruptions observed around Sagittarius A *. Source of images: ESO
The accretion disk also revolves around Sagittarius A *, which travels at nearly 30% of the speed of light, zooming 150 million kilometers around the object every 45 minutes. According to relativity, whenever S2 – or any burning object – reaches its innermost or even most stable orbit, fragments of it must cross the event horizon and vaporize instantly as they fall into the black hole, causing brief infrared flashes.
Thanks to GRAVITY, MPE scientists were able to see that this really happened as close as possible to the S2 flyby. "The great sensitivity of GRAVITY has allowed us to observe real-time accretion processes with unprecedented details," said another MPR scientist, Oliver Pfuhl. ESO. "It's mind-boggling to witness the presence of materials orbiting around a huge black hole at 30% of the speed of light."
In fact, the planned projectors were spotted while the MPE team was observing S2 as part of the research that led to the July announcement, although it took until the end of the year. present to prepare the supporting documents for publication. "We were watching S2 closely and, of course, we are still keeping an eye on Sagittarius A *," recalls Pfuhl. "In our observations, we were lucky enough to notice three bright bursts around the black hole – it was a lucky coincidence!"
Now we know what lies at the center of the Milky Way
Source of image: ESO
Genzel calls the discovery of flares a "striking confirmation of the paradigm of the massive black hole". Astronomers believe that black holes are probably at the heart of other galaxies. This announcement has profound implications. "It has always been one of our dream projects, but we have not dared to hope it would be possible sooner," he says.
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