2024 Author: Adelina Croftoon | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 02:07
Astronomers have been studying the center of our galaxy for many years, which contains a supermassive black hole Sagittarius A *, exceeding the mass of the Sun by 4 million times.
However, with the advent of new instruments that allow us to examine the center of the Milky Way in new details, incredibly amazing and exciting details are revealed in the environment of Sagittarius A *. It is reported by in-space.ru.
In 2016, astronomer Farhad Yousef-Zadeh from Northwestern University in Evanston (USA) reported the discovery unusual curved thread stretching 2, 3 light years, which may originate near the center of the Milky Way, but the quality of the data did not allow to see it in detail.
The 2.3 light-year filament and the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A * in the center of the Milky Way. Credit: NSF / VLA / UCLA / M. Morris et al.
To test this assumption, a team of astronomers from the University of California at Los Angeles (USA) developed a new method and obtained a high-resolution radio image of the central region of the Galaxy. The research results are presented in The Astrophysical Journal.
“Thanks to the improved image, we were able to see the filament from start to finish and establish that it is located very close to the supermassive black hole. However, we still have a lot of work to do to find out the true nature of this mysterious object,”- says Mark Morris, lead author of the study.
What is this object?
Astronomers have three main versions of the origin of the giant filament. The first is reduced to the interaction of the magnetic fields of a supermassive black hole and high-speed particles escaping from it.
The second, more fantastic, suggests that the thread is a relict hypothetical cosmic string, which is a long, extremely thin object (10-29 centimeters in diameter). Previously, theorists predicted that cosmic strings, if they exist, migrate to the centers of galaxies.
It is, of course, impossible to see the cosmic string directly, but it, like any very massive object, creates a "gravitational lens" that can give it out.
Finally, the third assumption is based on a random and almost impossible coincidence of the position and direction of the filament relative to the black hole. In this case, there is no real connection between them.
“While we don't have an answer yet, finding one is exciting. The result motivates astronomers to build next-generation radio telescopes with cutting-edge technology,”said June Hai, co-author of the study at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, USA.
Consequences of detection
Proving any of the scenarios under consideration will provide scientists with valuable knowledge. For example, if a filament is formed by particle ejections from Sagittarius A *, this will provide important information about the magnetic field of its environment, showing that it is smooth and ordered, not chaotic.
Confirmation that the thread is a cosmic string will be the first evidence of a highly speculative idea and will revolutionize the understanding of gravity. space-timeand the universe itself.
And even if the filament is not physically connected to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, its curvature is very unusual. It may have been caused by a shockwave from a supernova explosion countering powerful winds from massive stars surrounding the black hole.
“We will continue to research until we have a convincing explanation for the nature of this object. To do this, we need more images of better quality, which we will try to get in the near future,”concluded Miller Goss, co-author of the study at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro (USA).
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