NASA spots supermassive black gap large ‘exhaust’ vent in center of Milky Way
Scientists have discovered that the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way has an “exhaust vent” similar to that of a car.
The experts used NASA’s flagship telescope, Chandra X-ray, to make the discovery. The supermassive black hole, named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), has a sort of cosmic “exhaust vent” according to scientists.
The chimney-like formation is found at a right angle in the Milky Way’s disk. The cleverly-formed “tunnel” ends in an vent that helps to channel hot gas away to Sgr A*’s outer regions.
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(Image: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk)
The “exhaust vent”, however, barely appears attached to the astronomical object. At the top of the tunnel, the vent is located around 700 light-years away from the region’s centre.
The chimney was first discovered using the European Space Agency’s telescope, XMM-Newton. In photos released by Chandra, different parts of the chimney show up in different colours according to radio wave data.
The newly-discovered vent is depicted as a bright blue and white slash against a darker blue cloud. In enhanced images, white ridges of x-ray waves can be seen exiting the vent, which scientists reckon is hot gas.
(Image: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/S.C. Mackey et al)
Supermassive black holes have a reputation for being ravenous, but Sgr A* comparatively consumes very little of its surroundings. Sgr A* consumes so little matter, that experts have theorised it would eat one grain of rice every million years, if it were human.
Sgr A* appears to be a bit more of a fussy eater, with new Chandra observations shedding some light onto the materials it rejects. This infrequent feeding may be a symptom of a complex gas-funnelling process.
Less frequently than other supermassive black holes (around every 20,000 years), an event known as a tidal disruption occurs with Sgr A*. This is when the supermassive black hole swallows and rips apart a star.
(Image: NASA / SWNS)
Tremendous amounts of energy are released during this process, including the rejects of the shredded star. Sgr A* may be omitting this through its newly-found “exhaust vent”, but astrophysicists have much more to discover to understand the mysteries of the Milky Way.
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