Astronomers have discovered a hot gas bubble orbiting the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, “Sagittarius A *,” at speeds of more than 200 million miles per hour, according to the website..RT
The hot bubble orbits the A * region of Sagittarius at about one-third the speed of light in an orbit the size of Mercury, completing a full circle in just over an hour..
Scientists say this discovery can help us better understand the mysterious and dynamic environment of the huge vacuum at the heart of our galaxy..
“We think we are looking at a hot gas bubble orbiting Sagittarius A * in an orbit similar to the size of Mercury, but completing a full cycle in just about 70 minutes,” said lead author Dr. Masikuelgus del Max. Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany.
He added: “This requires an astounding speed of about 30% of the speed of light.”“.
An international team discovered the “hot spot” using the Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in the Chilean Andes..
Supermassive black holes are incredibly dense regions in the center of galaxies and act as intense gravitational sources that raise dust and gas around them..
The Sagittarius A * region is only 26,000 light-years from Earth and is one of the very few black holes in the universe where we can actually see the flow of nearby matter..
But, because the region absorbs all ambient light, it’s extremely difficult to see, so scientists have spent decades looking for clues to black hole activity..
Recent observations have been made by the European Southern Observatory (HIS) In collaboration with the Event Horizon Telescope“(EHT) photograph black holes.
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