Zoom into the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy

Observers from the European Southern Observatory last week confirmed what scientists have long suspected: Sagittarius A *, an astronomical radio source at the center of our galaxy, is actually a supermassive black hole.

To prove it, scientists had to observe objects traveling near Sagittarius A *. When a star called S2 climbs into the depths of Sagittarius A * gravity, a group of scientists from several European institutions observed three flashes illuminating at 30% of the speed of light.

Now, the European Southern Observatory has published a brilliant reconstruction of this show as it happened.

From the YouTube description:

This video begins with a broad view of the Milky Way, then presents a visualization of data from orbital motion simulations of gas swirling at about 30% of the speed of light in a circular orbit around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A *.

The scale of the video is absolutely amazing. Really cool stuff