The Milky Way's Monster Black Hole Has a Cool Gas Halo -- Literally
The Milky Way's Monster Black Hole Has a Cool Gas Halo — Literally
By Charles Q. Choi 6 hours ago
This artist's impression shows a ring of cool interstellar gas around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*.(Image: © NRAO/AUI/NSF; S. Dagnello)
For the first time, astronomers may have imaged the cool disk of gas surrounding the gigantic black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, a new study finds.
The research may improve knowledge about how black holes grow and influence their surroundings.
At the hearts of most, if not all, galaxies are supermassive black holes millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. These enormous structures can have profound effects on the galaxies they call home — for example, they can blast out jets of matter at nearly the speed of light that can travel across an entire galaxy, likely shaping the galaxy's evolution.
The location of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A.
(Image: © F. Baganoff et al./NASA/CXC/MIT)
At the center of our galaxy lies the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, often abbreviated Sgr A*. This giant is about 4 million times the mass of the sun and about 14.6 million miles (23.6 million kilometers) in diameter.
More:
https://www.space.com/milky-way-monster-black-hole-cool-disk.html
