Something Weird Is Happening To Our Supermassive Black Hole

Sagittarius A star the supermassive black hole situated at the center of the Milky Way typically remains in a dormant State however on certain occasions it appears to wake up resulting in heightened activity a significant event occurred in the recent past when this dormant black hole suddenly awakened and started in intense Feeding Frenzy consuming the surrounding Cosmic debris with great vigor this extraordinary activity persisted for over a year and gave rise to a powerful burst of radiation surpassing its current Levels by nearly a million times and the most mind-blowing thing about this is that NASA has recorded The Echoes of this exciting black hole event so what you're about to hear is not a climax music piece from a dramatic movie instead it's the musical version of The Echoes of a burp that Sagittarius A star took after feeding extensively on the interstellar medium surrounding it thank you [Music] [Music] foreign these Echoes detected by NASA show that the supermassive black hole lying at the center of our galaxy woke up just 200 years ago but the most important question is that how did scientists come to know that such an event occurred at that time what exactly happened at the center of the Milky Way that produced this intense burst of energy finally and most importantly what does this discovery tell us about the environment at the heart of our galaxy [Music] [Music] Sagittarius A star is the closest supermassive black hole to Earth located over 25 000 light years away it has an enormous Mass about 4 million times that of our sun black holes in general possess an immense gravitational pull that draws in any nearby matter including light itself within their event Horizons but this process isn't quiet when a black hole consumes the gas around it the intense gravitational forces heat up the surrounding matter to temperatures of millions of degrees this leads to the emission of powerful radio waves and x-rays as the matter moves towards the black hole's core compared to other supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies Sagittarius A star exhibits relatively low Luminosity it has occasional weak outbursts indicating that it's not actively consuming much of the surrounding material as a result most of the molecular clouds nearby remain cold and dark with faint x-ray signatures this calm Behavior has led some members of The Event Horizon telescope collaboration to affectionately call Sagittarius A star as a sleeping giant however recent observations by astronomers have unveiled something truly remarkable during their investigation astronomers focused on specific molecular clouds located near the supermassive black hole to their astonishment they discovered that these clouds exhibited unusually high luminosity it was like finding a solitary glow worm in a forest at night suddenly shining as brightly as the sun this raised the question what could have caused this sudden luminosity one of the most compelling explanations for this phenomenon suggest that these clouds are reflecting the x-rays emitted by Sagittarius A star approximately 200 years ago this Revelation indirectly indicates that Sagittarius A star is not as dormant as it seems so how did scientists arrive at this conclusion [Music] to unravel the precise cause of the unexpected x-ray brightness exhibited by the clouds researchers employed NASA's Imaging x-ray polymetry Explorer or the ixpe satellite this space Observatory comprises three identical telescopes designed specifically to measure the polarization of cosmic x-rays emitted by black holes neutron stars and pulsars understanding the polarization of a wave is crucial to understand this discovery let me explain in a simple way light as you might know is a kind of wave but unlike waves on the ocean that just go up and down light waves can wiggle in all sorts of directions imagine holding a rope and shaking it up and down the wave you crate in the rope moves horizontally along the length of the Rope but the Rope itself moves up and down light works in a similar way where the wave of light moves forward but the light itself can wiggle in any direction perpendicular to the direction it's traveling usually light from a lamp or the sun Wiggles in all directions equally up and down left and right in every direction in between this light is said to be unpolarized but light can become polarized if it passes through certain materials or reflects off certain surfaces which can filter out some of the directions of wiggling and allow other directions to pass through more polarized light mostly Wiggles in one specific Direction it's like a picket fence that only lets the Rope waves through if they're shaking up and down but not side to side studying polarization of light is important in astronomy it not only provides insights into the mechanisms behind a particular emission but also serves as a compass directing towards the source of the illumination during the study periods in February and March 2022 ixpe focused on the X-ray bright molecular clouds and measured the average Direction and intensity of the electric field of the X-ray waves coming from them through careful analysis astronomers were able to isolate the reflected x-ray signal and determine its point of origin and here's what they discovered [Music] the measurements showed that the x-rays had a polarization fraction of 31 percent and a polarization angle of -48 degrees plus or minus 11 degrees interestingly when considering a cloud located at the center of the observed region an angle of minus 42 degrees aligns with a line perpendicular to the direction pointing towards Sagittarius A star this angle Falls within the uncertainties of the measured polarization angle therefore it can be concluded that the observed x-ray emission from the giant molecular clouds is actually the reflected light from a powerful and short-lived Outburst that originated at or near Sagittarius A star based on the available data scientists estimated that the powerful burst responsible for the reflected x-ray emission occurred around 200 Earth years ago during the onset of the 19th century the discovery of X-ray flares from the center of our galaxy was first reported in the 1990s and further Evidence accumulated after the launch of the Chandra x-ray observatory in 1999. in 2007 it was revealed that Sagittarius A star experienced a significant increase in brightness about 60 years prior reaching about 100 000 times its usual level then in 2013 evidence of two major outbursts from Sagittarius A star within the past few hundred years was unveiled the recent observations conducted by the ixpe provided a crucial test to confirm these hypotheses if the X-ray is emitted during a previous Flare from Sagittarius A star were indeed reflected off nearby gas clouds they would exhibit polarization as the x-rays would oscillate in a specific Direction remarkably the measurements obtained by the ixpe confirmed the presence of polarization in the x-rays supporting the idea that the X-ray emission is a result of reflection this study presents compelling evidence that Sagittarius A star has not always been dormant providing insights into the mechanisms involved in the transition of a black hole from a quiet state to an active one [Music] astronomers often use multiple telescopes to observe objects in space each telescope detects different types of light providing unique pieces of information about what is being studied this is similar to how different musical notes can be combined to create harmonies that wouldn't be possible with single notes in recent years NASA has embarked on a project called sonifications of astronomical data this project takes the Digital Data collected by NASA's telescopes in space which is mostly invisible to our eyes and translates it into musical notes and sounds by hearing the data instead of seeing it scientists can gain A New Perspective so I will leave you with some Cosmic harmonies to enjoy that NASA has recently released each layer of sound in these sonifications represents specific wavelengths of light detected by NASA's chendra x-ray Observatory James Webb Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope in different combinations it allows us to experience and understand the data in a different way [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Secrets of the Universe

Views: 41,882

Keywords: Black Hole, Polarization

Id: fKvibElLybg

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2023