Astronomers Detect Only Mild Wind from Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Astronomers have detected evidence of a mild wind blowing from Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center, after 50 years of searching. New observations reveal a cone-shaped path leading away from Sagittarius A that could only be carved by a hot wind. The findings are reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 4.

Murchikova and astronomer Mark Gorski amassed more than 100 hours of observations of Sagittarius A* over five years using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array in Chile. The observations revealed the distribution of cold carbon monoxide up close to the black hole.

A new data processing method allowed the team to see gas, dust and other materials 100 times fainter than previously possible and created an image of the black hole’s neighborhood 80 times sharper than before.

The results showed a stark cone-shaped gap near Sagittarius A* that is devoid of cold carbon monoxide. Previous observations of X-rays showed hot gas in the same region as the cone-shaped void. ” He added that the findings tell us that even though most black holes are pretty quiet, they’re still having an impact.