Something strange is happening with a black hole in the center of the Milky Way

It's no secret that black holes are the most mysteriousobjects in the universe. But what are they like? In simple terms, black holes are objects of extreme density. Due to their large mass, they have a strong gravitational attraction. It is so strong that even light falls into the trap when it passes by a black hole. Once inside, he will not be able to escape from there. There are a lot of questions regarding the nature of black holes. And recently there have been even more of them - according to scientists, the black hole in the center of the Milky Way has recently behaved somehow strange.

What is an event horizon?

For 20 years, scientists have been keeping their eyes on blackholes in the center of our galaxy. Note that technically, of course, no one sees a black hole as such. Scientists learn about the presence of a black hole due to the strong distortion of space that occurs due to the gravitational field of this massive object.

All celestial bodies in close proximityblack holes fall into the so-called event horizon - this is a kind of “shell” of a black hole or simply a place in space from which light cannot escape.

By the way, it is the event horizonScientists “photographed” in April 2019. We write the word photographed in quotation marks, since this is not a photograph in the usual sense. The image was taken thanks to the collected data from eight Event Horizon Telescopes, which are located on different continents of the Earth. After all the data from the telescopes were received, they were processed on the supercomputer for two whole years. However, the most important thing is that before the black hole was taken, the existence of these massive objects was considered hypothetical. Now we know that black holes are real.

In general, the very fact that in the center of each galaxy is a black hole is amazing. You can discuss this in our Telegram chat.

What happens in the center of the Milky Way?

Milky Way Galaxy

Black hole in the heart of the Milky Waylocated in the constellation Sagittarius A. This area is observed by many telescopes, including Spitzer and Chandra. Studying matter near a black hole in May of this year, scientists noticed that it is more active than usual - its event horizon is becoming brighter. Scientists note that the black hole in the constellation Sagittarius A is a fairly calm object, however, according to new data, the situation has changed.

May 13, astronomers saw a relatively lowdecrease in brightness, suggesting that the black hole passed an unknown peak, which was even brighter. According to the data, a recent outbreak led to the event horizon of a black hole becoming brighter by as much as two times. Note that scientists are observing a similar phenomenon for the first time.

Russian telescope ART-XC

According to researchers, so unusualthe behavior of the black hole could be caused by the close passage of a star called S0-2 in 2018 or an object called G2 in 2014. Observations of the blackened event horizon of the black hole in the constellation Sagittarius A will continue. ART-XC, a new Russian space telescope launched about a month ago, recently joined the study of a black hole in the center of our galaxy.

Even more interesting facts about black holes can be found here.