Groundbreaking finding: Objects near black hole Sagittarius A* are orbiting safely, not falling in after all
A new, groundbreaking study has now overturned this long-standing belief concerning the supermassive black hole at the hub of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. New high-resolution observations show that several celestial objects previously thought to be on their way to be swallowed up by the black hole are actually maintaining surprisingly stable orbits, according to the University of Cologne.
An international team led by Dr. Florian Peißker of the University of Cologne used the Enhanced Resolution and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) facility in Chile for the study, which observed four curious celestial bodies referred to as 'dusty objects.' The most talked about was G2, which was considered a fragile cloud of gas that was assumed to have been stretched out and destroyed (a process termed 'spaghettification) by Sgr A*'s great gravity. However, the new ERIS observations revealed G2 is tracing a stable and predictable path. This stability strongly suggests that G2 is not just a gas cloud, but that it harbors a star inside its dust. It is also a confirmation that our Milky Way can be surprisingly stable.
It also followed the D9 binary star system: a pair of stars that closely orbit Sgr A*. The stars in D9 were known to be suffering incredible gravitational stresses that should, in theory, be causing the two stars to merge; the ERIS observations, however, confirmed the system remains intact and stable.
Objects X3 and X7 are also orbiting Sgr A* robustly, thus proving they are much tougher than previously predicted by theoretical models. “The fact that these objects move in such a stable manner so close to a black hole is fascinating,” Dr. Peißker stated. “Our results show that Sagittarius A* is less destructive than was previously thought. This makes the centre of our galaxy an ideal laboratory for studying the interactions between black holes and stars.”
Results, which have been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, show that the center of our galaxy is a complex, dynamic region capable of both destroying and even stimulating the creation of such exotic objects. Scientists plan to use future observations from ERIS and the forthcoming Extremely Large Telescope, ELT, to continue monitoring these resilient celestial bodies.
The Milky Way had long been known to host a supermassive black hole at its core, but until 2022, it had never been directly observed. That changed when the National Science Foundation-funded Event Horizon Telescope, or EHT, released the historic picture of Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. A black hole is a region in space where the gravitational pull is so strong that absolutely nothing, not even light, can escape its pull. The point of no return, or where the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light, is called the event horizon. While the name suggests an empty void, a black hole is actually a huge amount of matter crammed into a small area. Because light cannot escape, a black hole appears literally black. However, scientists can still study them.
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