Astronomers discovered a hot gas bubble whirling around Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
According to research published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, the ALMA aided astronomers in examining Sagittarius A's polarized radio emission, which revealed a black hole's magnetic field.
Study lead author Maciek Wielgus initially believed they were viewing a hot gas bubble revolving around the Sagittarius A in orbit with a planet of comparable size to Mercury.
Wielgus is a member of the Bonn, Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.
He said it required a velocity of around 30% of the speed of light and completed a full circle in about 70 minutes.
He works with the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University in the United States and the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre in Poland.
GRAVITY and ALMA data indicate that the flares originated in a "clump of gas" spinning at 30 percent the speed of light around the Milky Way's black hole.
It is in the sky's clockwise direction.
The scientists said they wanted to use EHT to investigate the gas clumps.
Sagittarius A*. This image was taken with NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Ellipses indicate light echoes.
Researchers Find Hot Gas Orbiting Around Milky Way's Black Hole
Wielgus noted per Science Daily that radio measurements revealed a sign of orbiting hotspots near the Milky Way's black hole for the first time.
He continued by saying that X-ray and infrared scans of the Sagittarius A revealed the presence of intriguing flares.
The research found that hot gas bubbles revolving around the black hole are thought to be responsible for the flares seen by X-ray and infrared instruments.
According to the latest research, flares may have resulted from magnetic interactions in the heated gas rotating around Sagittarius A.
Infrared hotspots may appear when infrared-emitting hotspots become visible at longer wavelengths as they cool down, as the EHT and ALMA found, according to Jesse Vos, a Ph.D. student at Radboud University.
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However, the research indicated that the observations could confirm earlier findings made by the GRAVITY instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT).
Ivan Marti-Vidal, a co-author, recommended combining GRAVITY and AlMA to monitor hotspots across frequencies using multiwavelength data. This might mark an important development in understanding the mechanics of flares in the Galactic core.
Vidal is a product of the Spanish University of Valencia.
About ALMA, Black Hole
According to NASA, black holes are celestial phenomena with such a powerful gravitational pull that even light cannot escape.
The study combined theoretical models with data to reveal how the hotspot formed and its surroundings and magnetic field.
The finding may provide new information about the big black hole's dynamic surroundings and spark interest in developing theoretical explanations.
The European Southern Observatory radio telescope is from and co-owns the ALMA in the Chilean Andes (ESO).
According to the study, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which connected eight existing radio telescopes worldwide, including the ELA, allowed for the first picture of the Milky Way's black hole.
The Wilgus team also examined the ALMA data collected during the EHT's Sagittarius observations, revealing more hints regarding the black hole's characteristics.
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