First detailed observations of matter orbiting close to a black hole

The first detailed observations of matter orbiting close to a black hole

New observations made with ESO’s extremely sensitive instrument GRAVITY have shown a gas cloud accelerating at a speed of about 30 per cent of the speed of the cloud. speed of light in a circular orbit just above the event horizon of a supermassive black hole located at the center of our galaxy.

Scientists from ESO (European Southern Observatory) have made the first such detailed The first detailed observations of matter orbiting close to a black hole The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), which ra is located in the center of the Milky Way. The researchers used the GRAVITY instrument, which of these species are on the Very Large Telescope interferometer – VLT) in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

Scientists observed flashes of infrared radiation that The strong infrared emission from the accretion disk around the Sun Sgr A*. This dust and gas matter orbits unusually close to the event horizon – The zone surrounding the black hole that separates the observer from the event The observed flashes originated from this point, which will never have any information. That’s the boundary, after kt hen exceeded, the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light in a black hole lni.

Everything that gets too close to the black hole is pulled beyond the event horizon, but some of the dust and gas in an accretion disk orbiting at relativistic speeds, can orbit around Sgr A*. This point, where matter can orbit without being pulled behind the event horizon, is known as the innermost stable orbit and is where the observed flashes came from.

– It’s stunning to really see matter orbiting around In the years 2019-2020, Ph. the speed of light – admitted Oliver Pfuhl from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. – GRAVITA’s incredible sensitivity allowed us to observe the accretion process in real time in unprecedented detail Ĺ‚ach – added the excited researcher.

GRAVITY instrument, thanks to which The observatory combines light from four telescopes in the VLT. This procedure allows to create a virtual telescope with a diameter of 130 meters It combines light from four telescopes and has already been used to observe Sgr A*. The same team n late July of this year, a team of researchers observed the passage of the S2 star through an extreme gravitational field around the he found the monster at the center of the galaxy, confirming Og’s prediction Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. During these observations, strong infrared emission has also been seen. More on this topic in the text: Successful test of Og l theory of relativity near a black hole.

The mentioned emission manifested itself as three bright flashes. Their features were consistent with theoretical predictions for hot spots orbiting in such close proximity to a black hole of mass four million in the mass of our Sun. Scientists believe that these flares originate from magnetic interactions in the hot gas orbiting near Sgr A*.