Milky Way's Monster Black Hole Data Collected By 'Legion' Of Telescopes

Space.com

The image of supermassive black hole Sagittarius A *  was created using data from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. At the same time several telescopes, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, were doing observations of their own.  Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart

Transcript

00:00Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe

00:05Sagittarius A-Star

00:07As the Event Horizon Telescope, known as the EHT,

00:14collected data for its remarkable new image of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole,

00:19a legion of other telescopes, including three NASA X-ray observatories in space,

00:24was also watching.

00:26Astronomers are using these observations to learn more about how the black hole

00:31in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A-Star, Sag A-Star for short,

00:38interacts with and feeds off its environment some 27,000 light-years from Earth.

00:44While the EHT observed Sag A-Star in April 2017 to make the new image,

00:51scientists in the collaboration also appeared at the same black hole

00:55with facilities that detect different wavelengths of light.

00:59In this multi-wavelength observing campaign,

01:03they assembled X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory,

01:07Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope, or NUSTAR,

01:11and the Neil Garrel Swift Observatory.

01:14Telescopes outside of NASA involved included the East Asian Very Long Baseline Interferometer,

01:20or VLBI, network, that observed radio emission.

01:25There was also the global 3mm VLBI array,

01:29along with infrared data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

01:35One important goal of this so-called multi-wavelength observing campaign

01:39was to catch X-ray flares,

01:41which are thought to be driven by magnetic processes similar to those seen on the Sun,

01:46but can be tens of millions of times more powerful.

01:51These flares occur approximately daily within the area of sky observed by the EHT,

01:57a region slightly larger than the event horizon of Sag A-Star,

02:01the point of no return for matter falling inward.

02:05Another goal was to gain a critical glimpse of what is happening on larger scales.

02:10While the EHT result shows striking similarities

02:14between Sag A-Star and the previous black hole it imaged, M87,

02:19the wider picture is much more complex.

02:27Both of these goals were successfully met.

02:30The researchers managed to catch X-ray flares, or outbursts,

02:34from Sag A-Star during the EHT observations.

02:37A faint one seen with Chandra in Swift,

02:40and a moderately bright one seen with Chandra in New Star.

02:44Astronomers have seen X-ray flares with a similar brightness to the latter with Chandra,

02:49but this is the first time that the EHT simultaneously observed Sag A-Star.

02:55This offers an extraordinary opportunity

02:57to identify the responsible mechanism using actual images.

03:02Astronomers were also able to learn more

03:05about the wider and complex picture of accretion.

03:09One of the biggest ongoing questions surrounding black holes

03:12is exactly how they collect, ingest,

03:15or even expel material orbiting them at near light speed

03:19in a process known as accretion.

03:23This process is fundamental to the formation and growth

03:26of planets, stars, and black holes of all sizes

03:29throughout the universe.

03:32Scientists will be able to use the data being released today

03:35to improve and hone their theoretical models

03:38of how black holes behave and interact with their surroundings.

03:42They will continue to study this unique combination

03:45to learn more about Sag A-Star

03:47and black holes throughout our universe.

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