Astronomers find a gas bubble orbiting the black hole at the center of the Milky Way

Astronomers observing space through the ALMA telescope, located in Chile, have found peculiar signals around Sagittarius A *, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Apparently, there is a “hot spot” orbiting the black hole.

According to the researchers involved, the hot bubble completes an orbit similar to that of the planet Mercury, but completes a full circle in just 70 minutes. For a star to be capable of such a feat, the speed developed must be about 30% of the speed of light.

In April 2017, eight radio telescopes around the world, including ALMA, gathered to take the first image of Sagittarius A *, and while collecting the data, the team found further clues to the black hole’s nature. Some of the observations were made by accident right after an explosion of X-ray energy at the center of the galaxy. These events are usually associated with so-called “hot spots”, which are hot gas bubbles that spin very fast and are very close to the black hole.

According to lead researcher and study leader Maciek Wielgus of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, “here we see for the first time a strong indication that orbiting hot spots are also present in radio observations.”

Study co-author Monika Mościbrodzka of Radboud University said that “we now find strong evidence of the magnetic origin of these flames and our observations give us a clue to the geometry of the process. The new data are extremely helpful in constructing a theoretical interpretation of these flames. these events “.

From ALMA, it is very likely that astronomers will be able to unveil the magnetic field of Sagittarius A *. This new research points to stronger constraints on the shape of this magnetic field than previous observations, which helps astronomers uncover the nature of the Milky Way’s black hole and its surroundings.

The new study reinforces previous observations

The observations confirmed some of the first discoveries made by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), which scans space at infrared wavelengths.

Another co-author of the study, Ivan Marti-Vidal, of the University of Valencia, Spain, commented that “in the future we should be able to track hot spots at all frequencies using coordinated observations. The success of such an effort would be a real milestone for our understanding of the physics of flames at the galactic center. “

Finally, Wielgus said he was confident about the future and upcoming discoveries. “I hope someday we will feel comfortable saying that we ‘know’ what’s going on in Sagittarius A *,” said the scientist.

Through: Phys

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Source: Olhar Digital