Astronomers Capture Best Views Yet of Stars Moving Around Our Local Black Hole

By compound the light from four powerful telescope , scientist have captured the deepest and clearest view yet of the immediate environment around the supermassive black hole at the center of our galax .

“ This really is the result of a decade - farsighted effort to observe the Galactic Center , ” Julia Stadler , an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the co - author of two novel study detailing the new observations , explained in an email .

The peer - reviewed papers were published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics , onedetailingthe fresh views of the disgraceful hole and the other adescriptionof the way bulk is circularize within the galactic core . This squad , which admit Reinhard Genzel , music director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics , is no stranger to Sagittarius A * , havingwonthe 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics “ for the find of a supermassive compendious object at the centre of our galaxy . ”

Small clusters of stars orbiting very closely to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

Small clusters of stars orbiting very closely to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.Image: ESO/GRAVITY collaboration

Using the European Southern Observatory ’s Very big Telescope Interferometer , the astronomers were able to track the movements of several stars around our coltsfoot ’s supermassive black yap , jazz as Sagittarius A * ( pronounce Sagittarius A - star ) . They even blot a previously unknown sensation , now named S300 . fit with the new data , the astronomers were able to test Einstein ’s cosmopolitan theory of Einstein’s theory of relativity , devise a young mass estimate for the black hole , and quantify our distance to the Galactic Center . They were also able-bodied to maintain much more precisely how principal bear cheeseparing to Sagittarius A * .

It takes these stars between 14 and 18 year to finish a full gyration of the fateful hole , requiring lengthy periods of observations to get precise mensuration of their orbits . The team , in addition to collecting many years of data , used theGRAVITY interferometer , which coalesce light gathered by all four 27 - invertebrate foot ( 8.2 - meter ) telescopes at ESO ’s Very big Telescope . GRAVITY boost the “ angular closure by a factor of 20 in comparison to what was possible before , ” as Stadler explain , saying this was an “ enormous melioration . ” This , plus the use of advanced mental imagery software program , “ allowed us to prevail the deepest high - solving images of the Galactic Center yet , ” say Stadler .

GRAVITY evaluate accurate movements of stars as they spun around the pitch-black mess from March to July 2021 . Star SN29 , which made its nearest approach of Sagittarius A * in May 2021 , pass the black hole at a distance of 8 billion nautical mile ( 13 billion kilometers ) , which is more or less three times the distance from Pluto to the Sun . Star SN29 has a rotational speed of 5,431 miles per 2d ( 8,740 km / s ) , which boggles the vision . That ’s 0.03 % the f number of visible light , and it outgo the previous record - bearer wizard , S2 , which incite at 4,785 miles per second ( 7,700 klick / s ) . The breakthrough of S300 — the antecedently undetected star — shows that GRAVITY is estimable at finding even fainthearted objects .

Sequence of images showing the movements of stars around Sagittarius A* between March and July 2021.

Sequence of images showing the movements of stars around Sagittarius A between March and July 2021.Image: ESO/GRAVITY collaboration*

“ We are really knocked out by the number of stars we see so closelipped to the pitch-black muddle , ” Stadler said . “ To discern them from each and precisely get across their apparent movement [ proportional to each ] other is really just potential due to the high resolution of GRAVITY . ”

A revised estimate of the mordant hollow ’s mass was made possible by tracking the motions of the stars , revealing it to count as much as 4.3 million Suns . This reflexion was found to be consistent with Einstein ’s possibility of general theory of relativity . The team “ also used the mensuration to see if there is some extended mass component surrounding Sagittarius A * , and we discover that there can not be much additional passel , ” Stadler explained . “ For model , we can except that there is a cloud of 1,000 smaller black mess around Sagittarius A * . ” Good to know . The data also allowed for the most accurate mensuration yet of its aloofness from Earth : 27,000 light - years .

GRAVITY will be upgraded later this decade , when it will become GRAVITY+ , which , of class . It ’ll still be installed on VLTI , where it will acquire even good views of the supermassive black hole . The promise is to spot stars even closer to Sagittarius A * and to measure the speed at which it rotate .

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