Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is slowly “devouring” a large mysterious object. Astronomers have been following this fascinating process since 2002 using the WM Keck Observatory.
It was recently revealed that the object in question – dubbed X7 – has become extremely elongated due to the powerful forces of Sagittarius A*. It is now about 3000 astronomical units (au) long.
However, scientists still don’t really know where it actually came from. According to the prevailing hypothesis, it is a massive cloud of dust and gas that was created as a result of the merger of two stars.
“This is a unique chance to observe the tidal effects of a black hole in high resolution, giving us insight into the physics of the extreme environment of the Galactic center,” she stated researcher Anna Ciurlo from UCLA.
With the apparently inevitable demise of X7, Sagittarius A* will heat up, which is likely to cause it to light up—in other words, a cosmic fireworks display.
“We predict that the strong tidal forces exerted by the galactic black hole will eventually tear X7 apart before it completes even one orbit,” he stated Anna’s co-worker Mark Morris.
