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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