We have the first-ever glimpse at Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole residing at the core the Milky Way, our home galaxy.
A little over three years ago, scientists published the first photo ever made of a black hole. Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) captured a black hole in the middle of the Messier 87 supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo.
Researchers now released another historic photo, this time capturing the supermassive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* – the first image to give an insight into the core of our galaxy.
This gigantic black hole cannot be seen with the naked eye either, as its gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from it. The event horizon, however, is visible: here the matter swirls at almost the speed of light before it is finally absorbed by Sagittarius A*.
According to Sera Markoff, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam and co-chair of the Scientific Council of the EHT, the main target of the EHT was the black hole in the Milky Way because it is the closest supermassive black hole, The Guardian reports.
The image provides convincing evidence that the enormous black hole indeed exists in the middle of our galaxy. In addition, there are speculations that boson stars or nodules of dark matter are also at the center of the Milky Way.
At first glance, the picture isn’t very different from that of Messier 87, which is 55 million light-years away from us. However, observing this black hole, situated 26,000 light-years from us, posed a serious scientific challenge for the team, for whom it took five years to analyze the data recorded in 2017. The Sagittarius A* is almost a thousand times smaller than the M87, which means they needed a resolution like looking at a bun on the moon.
“We were stunned by how well the size of the ring agreed with predictions from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity,” said EHT Project Scientist Geoffrey Bower from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, said in a statement. “These unprecedented observations have greatly improved our understanding of what happens at the very centre of our galaxy, and offer new insights on how these giant black holes interact with their surroundings.”
“Looking more comprehensively at this black hole will help us learn more about its cosmic effects on its environment, and exemplifies the international collaboration that will carry us into the future and reveal discoveries we could never have imagined,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson added.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5