Black hole seen in closest look ever

Black hole seen in closest look ever

news.nationalgeographic.com

September 4, 2008—A supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way has wound up in the crosshairs of a virtual telescope spanning 2,800 miles (4,506 kilometers).

Ground-based radio telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California aimed at Sagittarius A*—also called A-star—obtained the image (above, a previous picture of the black hole).

The star is believed to mark the position of a black hole four million times the sun's mass.

Though unproven, there is strong evidence for the existence of black holes.

(Related: "Hundreds of "Rogue" Black Holes May Roam Milky Way" [January 10, 2008].)

The black hole companion of Sagittarius A may be shunning the limelight now, but Shep Doeleman, an astronomer at MITs Haystack Observatory who led a recent study on the object, said it can't hide much longer.

Doeleman and his team say the source of the radiation is probably a disk of matter swirling toward the black hole, or a high-speed jet of matter being ejected from it.

"Now that we've shown it can be done, it's just a matter of time before we'll have very detailed information about what happens as matter is drawn near to the black hole and disappears forever," Doeleman said.

Their research appears tomorrow in the journal Nature.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
en.wikipedia.org
hubblesite.org
imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov
www.damtp.cam.ac.uk

This news is spectacular! such a great photo from such a close range, the photo is literally stunning, if you don't understand the idea of a black hole or have just never studied it, i've included a few links below, i feel this video is the most helpful though, hubblesite.org... you should watch that it's a great video. let me know what you think of the news articles and any theories, queries etc... thanks for reading.

news.nationalgeographic.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I have a question. I heard that every 26,000 years our solar system lines up with the center of the Milky Way. If that is true, don't that mean that we will be literally IN the black hole??? I hope I'm wrong. This is the first time that I want someone on ATS to tell me that I am wrong. Where are the skeptics?!?!

I've read that in a lot of places too, a lot of people feel that is maybe the explanation of 2012, i remain skeptical, has anyone else noticed that the Mayan calendar: beyondthetenth.com... shown in that link , kinda resembles the planets lining up as shown in this video : www.youtube.com... , maybe the Mayans where even more intelligent that we thought, maybe the calendar does not just show the date of our demise but many clues too it, or maybe i'm totally wrong, as usual i remain skeptical, FOR NOW x

www.spitzer.caltech.edu...

On that link is an artist rendering of approximately where our solar system is located within the Milky Way galaxy.

We're in what they call the Orion Arm. When you look up into the night sky and see the dense line of stars overhead, that's the "arm" they are talking about.

Now, according to the Maya, they noticed the rising sun at the winter solstice getting ever closer to the arm in the sky. The alignment they speak of is really only seeing the rising sun on Dec 21, 2012 appearing to "line up" to the exact middle of Galactic Center.

Here is a graph explaining the alignment.

www.bibliotecapleyades.net...

This doesn't mean that we're going to be sucked into a black hole. This just means from our perspective on Earth that our sun seems to line up.

I guess you could crudely compare it to something like a solar or lunar eclipse. While another object seems to go in front of it, it really isn't and it is a kind of optical illusion.

www.seds.org...

That link talks about approximate distances of stuff from Galactic Center.

Don't assume that a black hole is a one way ticket. Some scientists think black holes emit as well as attract.

wopat.uchicago.edu...

That is an artist rendering.

Hope that helps.

wow, thanks for the breath of knowledge really helped me sum it all up. thanks for the reply

reply to post by Ceara


Thanks! That was the first time I truly got worried on this site lol. Come to think of it, I do remember what you said being talked about in the zietguist movie. Thanks for clearing that up a little