June 22, 2023, 13:24 | Updated: June 22, 2023, 13:34
Astronomers detect a strange echo in the center of the Milky Way
Scientists believe that galactic musical sounds emitted from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole at the turn of the 19th century.
The Milky Way contains a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, about 26,000 light-years from Earth. Its name is Sagittarius A*, often shortened to Sgr A*, and it has a mass of 4.1 million times that of our Sun.
In results released yesterday, scientists said they noticed a strange sound coming from the black hole, which was detected by NASA’s IXPE spacecraft.
Their research indicates that this sound, which sounds like melodic singing, is the echo of a violent explosion released by the black hole at the turn of the 19th century (hear above).
The results indicate that a mass of gas and dust got too close to the black hole, causing it to wake up from its dormant state and gobble up material.
As the black hole feeds on gas and dust, bursts of bright X-ray light bounce off an echo, which can then be converted into sound waves.
Read more: NASA releases eerie “singing” from a black hole that’s straight out of a horror movie
Hear the melodic singing of a supermassive black hole in the Milky Way…waking up 200 years ago.
Image: NASA/CXC/SAO/IXPE
The echo was detected after astronomers at France’s Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory noticed that the massive clouds of star-forming molecular gas, which live near Sgr A*, were brighter in X-rays than usual.
According to notes published on June 21 In the journal NatureIt is possible that the light did not come from within the gas clouds, but rather reflected from them, after an explosion from the black hole.
A team led by Frédéric Marin at the University of Strasbourg used NASA’s IXPE satellite and found the theory very plausible.
“It reveals the past awakening of this giant body – which is 4 million times more massive than the Sun,” Marin said.
Read more: NASA releases the stunningly beautiful audio of the Butterfly Nebula
Given that the spacecraft can reveal information about how light is produced and reflected, scientists can infer that the origins of the X-rays were near Sgr A*, and that they were emitted just over 200 years ago.
The audio above, a modification of NASA Visual Data, shows a curved line tearing across the image, starting in the lower right corner. As it passes over the IXPE data, it plays sounds like digital wind.
“Our work provides the missing piece of evidence that X-rays from giant molecular clouds are due to intense, but short-lived, glow reflection produced in or near Sagittarius A*,” Marin added.
We don’t know exactly what approached Arch A* until it was torn apart by the surrounding forces. But we do know that it produced this strange, unusual echoAnd And a huge sonic shriek from the depths of the universe.
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