Sagittarius A*: Hot Gas in Motion Around Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole—What is It?

Gas and light are sucked in a black hole, but there is one mysteriously encircling it.

A discovery by researchers was able to spot a hot swirling gas around the Milky Way galaxy's famed supermassive black hole, the Sagittarius A*, and it brings a phenomenon to astronomers worldwide. A black hole is known to be a place or region which presents significant gravitational power, with light not even having a chance to escape it.

Hot Gas Swirls Around Supermassive Black Hole Sagittarius A*

The orbit of the hot spot around Sagittarius A*
This shows a still image of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, as seen by the Event Horizon Collaboration (EHT), with an artist’s illustration indicating where the modelling of the ALMA data predicts the hot spot to be and its orbit around the black hole. EHT Collaboration, ESO/M. Kornmesser (Acknowledgment: M. Wielgus)

ALMA or the Atacama Large millimeter/submillimeter array astronomers were able to spot a hot swirling gas around the galaxy's supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*. According to its recent release, teams from all over the world worked together to study the hot gas around it, especially as it undertakes an orbital motion on the space entity.

"We think we're looking at a hot bubble of gas zipping around Sagittarius A* on an orbit similar in size to that of the planet Mercury but making a full loop in just around 70 minutes." Maciek Wielgus, study lead from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, said.

The gas is also fast, as to do this feat, it needs to achieve a velocity of 30 percent lightspeed.

What is the Hot Gas around the Black Hole?

According to the study published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal, the gas is doing a sort of orbital motion around the black hole, also known as a negative space field in the cosmos. It is still a phenomenon that astronomers and researchers are trying to determine, especially regarding hot spots present in space and near black holes.

Black Hole and its Presence

A black hole's presence in a certain galaxy or system is feared, especially as it has the power to suck in everything in its proximity and is unforgiving to stars, rocks, and other celestial bodies floating around in space. There already are massive developments by scientists in creating robots that can pass through black holes, and these probes would see what is on the other side or what it contains.

A dormant black hole outside the Milky Way galaxy was recently discovered by the "Black Hole Police," and it is a different one from Sagittarius A*, presenting a unique finding from the group. This type of black hole is difficult to spot, especially as it does not radiate the same amount of x-rays that a typical black hole would have available.

Despite being one of the most unknown entities in the universe now, researchers intend to discover more and learn a handful of things from black holes and their presence.

The latest phenomenon surrounding a black hole is the swirling hot gas around it, which should not exist as it sucks in everything around it, and nothing is safe, even light. However, this gas managed to form on its outer edges and stay to show among the public, a new, unusual event present in the galaxy with Sagittarius A*.

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Written by Isaiah Richard

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