Researchers have long assumed that at the heart of our galaxy resides a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* (the asterisk is part of the nomenclature, not a footnote).
We’ve never seen this black hole at the heart of the Milky Way because, well, we can’t see black holes. They’re not only small, but their strong gravitational attraction means they’re frequently surrounded by luminous matter, which obscures our view even more.
However, traces of black holes can be seen in their environs. Now, an instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) Interferometer of the European Southern Observatory has provided strong new evidence that Sagittarius A* exists — and that it is slowly eating the Milky Way.
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Can you see Sagittarius A from Earth?
A gigantic black hole and its furious jets were brought into focus in a new image released Monday.
However, it wasn’t our galaxy’s black hole this time. Centaurus A was the star, which was 12 million light-years away from our Solar System.
Scientists are currently aiming to obtain the first image of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, using the Event Horizon Instrument (EHT), the same telescope that captured the first-ever image of a black hole.
The backstory is as follows: In April 2019, a group of more than 200 astronomers from around the world presented the first photograph of a black hole. The image was created by the EHT team using data from eight telescopes on five continents during a seven-day period.
The galaxy Messier 87 contains a black hole at its center (M87). M87 is 55 million light-years away from Earth and has a mass of 6.5 billion times that of the Sun, making it far larger than Sagittarius A*.
Sagittarius A*, for example, is around 27,000 light-years away and has a mass 4 million times that of the sun. Scientists know it’s there because of its impact on the environment, but they’ve never seen it up close. The star S0-2, for example, is on a 16-year elliptical orbit around the black hole.
Is Sagittarius A The closest black hole to Earth?
The Unicorn is a rare little black hole with a mass of around three times that of the sun. Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, is estimated to have a mass of around 4 million times that of the sun. It’s not just one of the tiniest black holes ever seen, but it’s also the closest one we know of, at only 1,500 light years distant.
The black hole was virtually hidden in plain sight in the shadow of partner red giant star V723 Mon, which is a known variable star, indicating that its brightness varies.
Because such an abyss would have to be so extremely small, a neighboring black hole as a possible explanation for the star’s variations has previously been disregarded.
“Rather than ignoring the potential that it could be a black hole, Tharindu looked at this thing that so many other people had looked at and thought, ‘Well, what if it could be a black hole?'” remarked Ohio State astronomy professor Kris Stanek.
Will Earth get sucked in by a black hole?
We are significantly closer to a supermassive black hole than we previously believed. Earth is moving closer to the galaxy’s center, according to a new map of the Milky Way galaxy. The good news is that we’re not going any closer to the black hole, and we’re not in any danger of being sucked in right now.
Is Sagittarius A The biggest black hole?
Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole 4.3 million times the size of the sun, sits in the core of the Milky Way. Until recently, it was not clear how much of the matter at the centre of the galaxy was Sagittarius A*. The velocities of four distant stars orbiting the black hole were measured by astronomers. The velocity of the stars suggests that the material in the galaxy’s core is almost exclusively made up of stuff from Sagittarius A*, leaving little place for additional stars, black holes, interstellar dust and gas, or dark matter.
Is Sagittarius A * Active?
Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s very own supermassive black hole, is supposed to be tame. It’s not an active galactic nucleus and, unlike some other massive black holes that spin so quickly that they bend space, it mostly stays to itself.