We really ca n’t quetch about Sagittarius A , the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way . Many other black golf hole spew out jets of material and disrupt their galaxies , making lifespan there improbable . But not Sagittarius A – it ’s a calm tenant of the Milky Way . So calm that the sudden production of a flare caught astronomers off guard .
Astronomers led by a team at UCLA have been conducting observations of Sagittarius A * using the WM Keck scope in Hawaii . On May 13 , they notice that the supermassive black jam became brighter than usual and then dim over the follow 2.5 hours . Details of the observation have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and are available onarXiv .
calamitous holes are by their very nature black . What the researcher saw is a sudden increase in gas swirling around the black hole . Once something gets too close , the incredible forces around a black hole inflame the fabric to incredible temperatures , making it glow . Lead writer Tuan Do shared a timelapse on Twitter a few days ago , where the flare is clearly seeable .
Researchers are not on the button sure what caused the flash , but a likely culprit is seeable in the shared footage . The point of light just above and to the left wing of Sagittarius A * that stay on seeable once the flare disappears is a star called S0 - 2 . The star is one of a fistful that revolve nigh to the pitch-black hole , and in May 2018 , S0 - 2 reached its close pointedness to it at about 20 billion kilometers ( 12.4 billion mile ) .
" One of the possibilities , " Do toldScienceAlert , " is that the wizard S0 - 2 , when it passed tight to the black hole last twelvemonth , changed the way accelerator flow into the black kettle of fish , and so more flatulence is go down on it , leading it to become more variable . "
Do and his team have been keeping an oculus on S0 - 2 , as the hotshot ’s place have been used over the last few 10 to screen Einstein ’s hypothesis of oecumenical relativity . Ina late study , the squad showed that Newton ’s gravitation ca n’t excuse what we see pass off around Sagittarius A * and that Einstein ’s magnum opus rest the best gravitational theory we presently have .
[ H / T : ScienceAlert ]
