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A giant gas cloud is on its way to collide with black hole in the center of our galaxy in 2013. This event represents a unique opportunity to observe how supermassive black holes absorb material in real time time.
Black hole in the center of the galaxy, officially known as Sagittarius A (Sagittarius A), fascinates scientists. By mid-2013, gas the cloud is expected to pass in the vicinity of the black hole on a distance of only 36 light hours (equivalent to 40,000,000,000 km), which is very close by astronomical standards.
The last 20 years, Stefan Gillessen, astrophysicist from Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich, Germany, watched a black hole. “So far, there have been only two stars that walked close to Sagittarius A, “he says.” They stayed unscathed, but this time it will be different. Gas cloud will completely torn by the tidal forces of a black hole. “Black hole – what remains after the supermassive star dies. When the star’s “fuel” runs out, it swells up first and then collapses into a dense core. If the remnants of this core are more than in three times the mass of our sun, it turns into black hole.
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Direct observation of such black holes is impossible, because they jet black and do not emit light or matter. But astronomers can determine a black hole indirectly, due to gravitational forces, observed in its vicinity.
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Photo: youris.com The so-called supermassive black holes are the largest type of black holes. Their mass is from hundreds of thousands to billion times the size of our sun. In the center of all galaxies are believed to be supermassive black holes. But their the origin is not fully understood, and astrophysicists can only to guess what is going on inside them. Therefore inevitable the collision is of great interest to scientists, since this should provide some new ideas. Reinhard Hansel leads a team of astronomers from the European Southern Observatory, which opened a gas cloud approaching a collision with a black hole in the center of our galaxy, and studies its trajectory. By to their observations, cloud speeds have nearly doubled in the past seven years, reaching more than 8 million km / h.
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The edges of the cloud have already begun to decay and, as expected, the gas the area will be completely destroyed in the coming months. By as the collision approaches, the cloud is expected to become warm up. It will probably also begin to emit X-ray rays as a result of interaction with a black hole. This event will give astronomers and astrophysicists a unique opportunity observe how a cloud of gas behaves near one of the most mysterious objects of our universe.
A photo open source © ESA / Medialab AOES
Galaxy Time Sun Black Hole
