In fact, they have long suspected that in the center of our galaxy is a supermassive black hole, and now they have convincing evidence to prove it. Using the Very large telescope array of four individual telescopes, located in an empty Atacama desert in Chile — scientists have observed the alpha of Sagittarius, of an object in the center of the milky Way, which is considered a supermassive black hole. During operation, the researchers observed three bright flashes near Sagittarius A*, which are closed circuit 280 million kilometers in just 45 minutes. This is about 30% of the speed of light.
Scientists say that so massive an object is four million times heavier than the mass of the Sun — which fits in such a small orbit will almost certainly be a black hole. “The result was resounding confirmation of the paradigm of massive black holes,” says Reinhard Hansel, lead author of the study. “It is amazing to see the material orbiting the enormous black hole at the speed of 30% of the light. Huge GRAVITY sensitivity allowed us to observe an unprecedented accretion of strip in real time.
Black holes exist
Bright flashes observed on the orbit of alpha Sagittarius, are the result of magnetic interaction of the hot gas around the black hole. In addition, they behaved as they should behave point, rotating around the black hole of this size.
“We have closely followed the object S2 and, of course, always closely watching Sagittaritus A*”, the researchers say. “During our observations we were lucky enough to see three bright flashes around the black hole — it was a happy coincidence.”
The results were published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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