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KOMPAS.com – Astronomers discovered hundreds of strange rope-like structures or filaments at the center of our galaxy. This structure, they think, could possibly be used to trace the path of ancient black hole eruptions.
The findings, which were later published in The Astrophysical Journal Letter, suggest that each of these previously unknown filaments is between 5 and 10 light years long.
Also read: How was the Milky Way Galaxy Formed?
This size is thousands of times the distance between the Sun and Pluto, but is only visible at radio wavelengths. This means that the structure was most likely created by a burst of high-energy particles invisible to the naked eye.
Structures associated with black holes
Quoting Live Science, Sunday (4/6/2023) when viewed, hundreds of these filaments seem to point directly at the center of the Milky Way galaxy’s supermassive black hole.
This suggests that the structures may be remnants or the resulting effects of the explosion of an ancient high-energy black hole that tore through the surrounding gas cloud.
“It was surprising to find a new population of structures that appear to point toward the black hole,” said Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University in Illinois.
“I was completely stunned when I saw this. We also found that the filaments are not random but seem to be related to the flow of black holes in the Milky Way.”
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, nicknamed Sagittarius A*, is a cosmic monster with a mass of more than 4 million suns.
Its strong gravitational pull holds galaxies together but its voracious appetite has also resulted in severe cases of interstellar disturbances.
Also read: New Black Hole Discovered, Located Near the Milky Way Galaxy
Previous radio observations of Sgr A* by Yusef-Zadeh’s team found enormous energy bubbles, towering 25,000 light-years above each side of the black hole’s abdomen.
Observations also found approximately 1,000 vertical strand-like radio filaments radiating from Sgr A* like enormous lyre strings.
These two mysterious phenomena were most likely created by ancient explosions from our galaxy’s black holes, said Yusef-Zadeh.
Structure discovery
But different from this newly discovered structure. They are much shorter in size and far fewer in number.
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Despite these differences, researchers suspect the new structure was created by a similarly energetic eruption from the galactic center’s black hole that probably occurred about 6 million years ago.
The success of the findings cannot be separated from observations made from the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
“It seems that it is the result of material interactions coming out of nearby objects. However, further observations are needed to strengthen the analysis and know the life of the black hole in the center of our galaxy,” added Yusef-Zadeh.
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2023-06-04 08:00:00
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