At the heart of our galaxy is a giant black hole. That is why a star travels in a special way, and thus confirms Einstein’s famous theory. This was demonstrated with a measurement of more than two and a half decades.
The rapid dance of a star in the center of our Milky Way provides unprecedented confirmation of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
The star runs around the gigantic black hole at the heart of our galaxy on a rosette-shaped path, as decades of precision measurements demonstrate. The measurements corresponded exactly to Einstein’s theory, reports a research team led by Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching near Munich in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics”.
The general theory of relativity predicts that the orbits of the heavenly bodies will gradually rotate around the point where the respective heavenly bodies orbit. Since the orbits are generally not perfect circles, but rather ellipses, the shape of a rosette gradually emerges from the ellipse which rotates a little with each orbit.
This generally very small effect was first measured on the planet Mercury, whose orbit revolves around the sun. With a series of observations that lasted nearly 30 years, researchers have demonstrated this so-called perihelion rotation, also known as the Schwarzschild precession, for the first time on a star around a supermassive black hole, the central black hole of our Milky Way galaxy, found in the constellation Sagittarius. and carries the astronomical name Sgr A *.
Modern physics puzzle
“This breakthrough through observations supports the evidence that Sgr A * must be a supermassive black hole four million times the mass of the sun,” Genzel explained in a communication from the European Southern Observatory That, with its “Very Large Telescope” Observations have been made. The observed star with the designation S2 runs around the black hole at a distance of less than 20 billion km, which is about 120 times the distance from Earth to the sun, and reaches up to a third the speed of light.
A star orbit has been around for 16 years. Therefore, long precision measurements were required to accurately determine the orbit of the celestial object, which was about 26,000 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year.
According to the researchers, the observations also allow us to better estimate how much invisible material in the form of smaller black holes or so-called dark matter is located near the central black hole of our galaxy. Dark matter is one of the biggest puzzles in modern physics: it shows by gravity that it is more than five times more common than the matter with which we are familiar, but researchers so far have had no idea what this matter is. With the next generation of even larger telescopes, astronomers hope to get closer to the mass monster at the heart of the Milky Way.
Photos of the day
In the English town of Backwell, you can admire the two-tone bloom of the “strawberry and cream tree.” The tree, planted as early as the late 1950s, has now been placed under protection. It is a native white flowering cherry in which a Japanese carnation cherry has been grafted.
Business as always: NATO continues to practice in Crown times. Canadian infantrymen gather without face mask and distance command as part of the “Steel Brawler” maneuver at the Mza Mackevici military training area in Latvia.
The street has never been cleaner: cleaning workers in Peru disinfect a street in Arequipa in the fight against the coronavirus.
Go for a dangerous walk: in Naples, a man and his dog pass the installation “Wolves to Come” by the Chinese sculptor Liu Ruowang.
Cozy house: Two young squirrels look out from their home in Überlingen on Lake Constance, at a gnarled old tree next to the road.
Iron coffin: Six years after the sinking of the South Korean ferry “Sewol”, the shipwreck, which was lifted in 2017, is still in the port of Mokpo. 299 people died in the accident, five are still missing.
During a visit to the Giessen University Hospital, the German Minister of Health, Jens Spahn (left) and the Prime Minister of Hesse, Volker Bouffier (center) and their colleagues push each other into an elevator. For not complying with applicable distance rules, there was criticism after the photo was posted on Twitter.
The Nazis defeated, and now the virus: the 99-year-old veteran of World War I, Ermando Armelindo Piveta, is released from the army hospital in Brasilia. The oldest Brazilian to date who has recovered from a coronavirus infection said, “For me, winning this battle was bigger than winning it in war.”
“You and I, and no one else, can hit as hard as life!” In Philadelphia, the statue of “Rocky Balboa” also adheres to the wisdom of the film hero and is therefore prepared for the crown crisis.
Fishing Boat Floods: On the beach near Mumbai, India, countless fishing boats sway in the water due to applicable blocking regulations.
Kowtow: Men bow to the statues of Kim Il Sung (left) and Kim Jong Il at the great Mansudae monument in Pyongyang on the occasion of the 108th birthday of Sung, the founder of the state of North Korea.
British John Brayshaw discovered a Ford Popular from the 1950s, which included the engine and control signals, while working on his property in Heckmondwike. Now he’s trying to find out who buried the car here, and especially why.
Purchase Affection: At St. James’s Park in London, a man whistles from a distance and feeds a gray squirrel his way.
Salvador: During the Easter service, a medical gown was projected onto the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Shot down: A police bus in Frankfurt am Main collided with the car of a 73-year-old man and was seriously affected.
Applause for medical personnel in the fight against the coronavirus. Since mid-March, people in Spain have only been allowed to go shopping and in special cases.
A soldier disinfects the statue “La Bella Lola” in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo. The country is currently loosening its strict exit restrictions.
On a street in St. Margrethen, a nearly 50-year-old car caught fire on Sunday. The driver got out on time and was not injured. The classic car burned down. The police estimated that the damage to the property was around CHF 180,000.
Pope Fraziskus celebrates Easter Mass in an almost empty St. Peter’s Basilica. Around the world, the festivities around Easter are marked by the crown pandemic.
A wild boar mother with her two young in Haifa, Israel. Wild animals feel safer, experts say, since most people are home due to exit restrictions.
Beautiful in spite of everything: people enjoy the wonderful panorama in a boat on Lake Brienz.
Despite Corona: In Nicaragua, Christians have been celebrating the crucifixion of Jesus for over 130 years by dressing in colorful masks and costumes and dragging Judas bound through the streets of Masatepe.
Is the end of Covid-19 not in sight? An employee at the Sion hospital.
The Spanish flag is projected on the facade of the Greek Parliament in Athens, as an expression of European solidarity.
The southbound Gotthard Autobahn A-2 near Silenen will be poorly driven due to the crown pandemic on Thursday, April 9, 2020.
Good Friday procession in the Old City: the procession is very restricted due to the blockade of Coronavirus in Jerusalem.
Riots over planned food distribution in Kenya: Police used tear gas on the run to a district office in the slum of Kibera.
Ada Zanussi, 103, sits in her wheelchair at the nursing home in Lessona next to a medical worker after recovering from her Covid infection 19. When asked what she wanted to do first after isolation, she replied : Take a “nice walk” and see the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Broken: Railroad workers are standing in front of two colliding locomotives in the Munich North maneuvering yard. The crash occurred lightly: the two train drivers were not seriously injured and there were no passengers on board.
With a safe distance: in line in front of a supermarket in Madrid, people maintain the required safety distance. Spain is the country with the most confirmed crown cases after the USA. USA
Blood Orange Monster Attack: An alleged supermoon towers above the Bavarian Pfaffenhofen.
Bent: a road bridge collapsed in Aulla, between Tuscany and Liguria. The drivers of the two vehicles on the bridge reportedly suffered minor injuries.
Green island: a group of trees in a field covered with a film.
Strict measures to contain the coronavirus have a positive effect on the environment in Colombia: in the popular port city of Cartagena, in the Caribbean Sea, the water is clean again. As you can see from the photos, it quickly returned to its turquoise blue color.
A heart and a soul: Emma Jaide holds her dwarf rabbit Elsa in her arms. In her short career as a rabbit breeder, the seven-year primary school won ten trophies in Hünfelden, Germany. She has been a district teacher several times and even featured the “best rabbit” at a show last year, which has now been sold.