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Photo: ESO / L Calçada / TT
The S2 star is located about 26,000 light years from Earth and orbits the black hole in the center of the Milky Way. The track is not flat (red), but helical (blue). In this illustration, the shape of the web has been exaggerated.
For the first time, astronomers have been able to demonstrate that the Milky Way’s black hole is forcing a star to move in an arc. The phenomenon was predicted by Albert Einstein over 100 years ago, and provides further insight into how the black hole extends into space.
After nearly 30 years of precise measurements of a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, a group of astronomers linked to the ESO European Southern Observatory may reveal a peculiar pattern. Instead of moving in a flat orbit, much like the one seen in regular school books, the star rotates in an arc shape, much like an extended coil spring.
The discovery is not really unexpected, but it completely coincides with the predictions made by the physicist Albert Einstein just over 100 years ago when he formulated the general theory of relativity. According to that theory, heavenly bodies cannot return to exactly the same place in their orbit, unlike Newton’s classic model of how heavenly bodies move in space. The result is a helical web.
Wild theories
This is greatly simplified because gravity according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity is not a force, but the result of space-time curvature. But the phenomenon can only be measured when spacetime curves extraordinarily, for example, near a supermassive black hole.
– Although it is not a surprise, it is always good to test theories, especially the wildest ones. Also, these measurements provide additional insight into how the mass of the Milky Way’s black hole is distributed there within the star’s orbit, “Robert Cumming, a communicator at the Onsala Space Observatory in Chalmers, tells TT.
Largest telescope
The researchers behind the study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, believe that the large ELT telescope, which is currently being built in Chile, will be able to see much fainter stars moving even closer to the supermassive black hole.
“With any luck, we can see the stars passing so close that they perceive the black hole’s spin, that is, its rotational motion. That would mean another whole new level in our opportunity to test the relativistic effects,” says Andreas Eckart. , Cologne professor. university, in a press release.
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