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The image was made possible by linking eight existing radio observatories around the world to create a single “Earth-size” virtual telescope that collects hours of data over multiple nights.
This new image may look very similar to the 2019 image of M87*, but the masses of the two black holes and the types of galaxies surrounding them are very different. The researchers found that Sagittarius A* at the center of our small spiral galaxy consumes gas much more slowly than M87*, which is spewing a powerful jet at the center of a giant elliptical galaxy. plasma.
Despite being much closer to us, Sagittarius A* was much more difficult to catch than M87*. This is because the gas surrounding Sagittarius A* completes an orbit in a matter of minutes rather than days or weeks for the gas orbiting the much larger M87*, causing the gas to change in brightness and pattern rapidly. The team compared capturing it to “trying to get a clear picture of a puppy chasing its tail at speed.” To make the black hole visible, they developed sophisticated new tools that take this gas movement into account.
“If Sagittarius A* were the size of a donut, M87* would be the size of the Munich football stadium Allianz Arena, just a few kilometers from where we are today”, Sara Issaoun, NASA Einstein researcher at Harvard & Smithsonian Center European Southern Observatory for Astrophysics in Germany “This similarity reveals to us an important aspect of black holes, regardless of their size or the environment they live in. When you reach the edge of a black hole, gravity takes over.”
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