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Scientists Find Wind Blowing From Our Milky Way's Black Hole After Half-Century Search: 'There It Is'
A Northwestern University team used five years of ALMA data to map a cone-shaped cavity that suggests Sgr A* has been driving a wind for 20,000 years.
- Northwestern University researchers announced they discovered a 20,000-year wind emanating from Sagittarius A* , the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, resolving a 50-year mystery.
- Astronomers had searched for this release of material for 50 years, theorizing that active supermassive black holes expel gas; Sgr A*'s relatively quiescent phase made the outflow subtle and difficult to detect.
- Using five years of observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter Submillimeter Array and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the team identified a cone-shaped cavity about 45 degrees wide, sculpted by the black hole's wind.
- This finding confirms that Sgr A* behaves like other supermassive black holes, dispelling the idea that our galaxy's central anchor was an outlier, according to study co-leader Elena Murchikova of Northwestern.
- Supermassive black holes are not isolated from their environments, according to co-author Mark Gorski, providing researchers a rare window into black hole behavior during its quiet, gentle state.
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They've Been Searching for the Milky Way's Black Hole Wind for 50 Years and Finally Found It
According to theory, all active black holes should produce winds or jets. Astronomers have long searched for wind around the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole. New images reveal a vacant, cone-shaped region pointing to the black hole. According to new research, only a supermassive black hole could've created this region.
·United States
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Wind from Milky Way's supermassive black hole is finally discovered
·New York, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources18
Leaning Left4Leaning Right2Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Center
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources are Center
50% Center
L 33%
C 50%
R 17%
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