Study Finds Sgr A* Black Hole's Actual Age and How It Was Formed
Summary
TLDRThis video explores the recent findings about Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's central black hole. The study by Wang and Jang suggests that the black hole's unusual spin is due to a massive collision with another black hole approximately 9 billion years ago, likely from the Gaia Enceladus Galaxy. This discovery supports the hierarchical black hole growth theory, providing evidence for how supermassive black holes can reach enormous sizes and potentially allowing us to predict future mergers.
Takeaways
- 🌌 The video discusses recent discoveries about the central black hole of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*.
- 📸 The iconic Event Horizon Telescope captured an image of this black hole, which led to a Nobel Prize.
- 🔍 A study by Wang and Jang focuses on how Sagittarius A* was most likely formed and when it was formed.
- 🌟 The researchers potentially discovered the origin story of Sagittarius A*, answering questions about massive black hole formations.
- 🌌 The black hole in the Milky Way is relatively close to Earth, allowing detailed observations not possible with more distant black holes.
- 🌠 Observations have revealed that Sagittarius A* has unusual emissions and occasional major eruptions.
- 🌪️ The energy from the black hole sometimes forms 'chimneys' and exhaust vents, but these do not significantly contribute to its mass.
- 🌌 Sagittarius A* is not growing significantly from the destruction of stars, suggesting it must have grown to its current size through other means.
- 💥 The study suggests that Sagittarius A* grew through a massive black hole collision, a process previously lacking evidence.
- 🌀 The black hole's unusual spin is evidence of a past collision, likely with the Gaia Enceladus Galaxy around 9 billion years ago.
- 📈 This discovery supports the hierarchical black hole growth theory and suggests that we might witness similar collisions in the future.
Q & A
What is the name of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy?
-The black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A*.
What recent discovery about Sagittarius A* is discussed in the video?
-The recent discovery discussed in the video is how Sagittarius A* was most likely formed and when it was formed, based on a study by Wang and Jang.
What is the mass of Sagittarius A* compared to other black holes?
-Sagittarius A* has a mass of just over 4 million solar masses, which is relatively small compared to other black holes like the one in the middle of the M87 galaxy, which is closer to 6 billion solar masses.
How far away from Earth is Sagittarius A*?
-Sagittarius A* is approximately 26,000 light years away from Earth.
What types of emissions can be observed from Sagittarius A*?
-Sagittarius A* produces emissions that can be observed in X-rays, infrared, and radio wavelengths.
How often does Sagittarius A* have major eruptions?
-It is believed that Sagittarius A* has at least one major eruption every few hundred years.
What is the role of the 'chimneys' discovered in the vicinity of Sagittarius A*?
-The 'chimneys' are structures through which a lot of energy from the black hole is guided and eventually released all at once.
What evidence suggests that Sagittarius A* grew through collisions?
-The evidence comes from the spin of Sagittarius A*, which is unusual and misaligned with the rest of the Galaxy, suggesting it resulted from a massive collision.
What was the mass ratio of the black holes in the collision that formed Sagittarius A*?
-The mass ratio of the black holes in the collision that formed Sagittarius A* was about 4 to 1.
How long ago is the Gaia Enceladus Galaxy believed to have merged with the Milky Way?
-The Gaia Enceladus Galaxy is believed to have merged with the Milky Way approximately 9 billion years ago.
What is the hierarchical black hole growth theory mentioned in the video?
-The hierarchical black hole growth theory suggests that massive black holes grow by colliding and merging with other black holes.
Outlines
🌌 Discovery of the Milky Way's Central Black Hole Origin
This paragraph discusses recent findings about the central black hole of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A*. The iconic Event Horizon Telescope captured an image of this black hole, which was a significant achievement that led to a Nobel Prize. The focus is on a study by Wang and Jang that explores the formation and origin of Sagittarius A*. The researchers examined details that were previously overlooked, potentially uncovering the black hole's origin story. The video also touches on the broader question of how massive black holes formed in the universe billions of years ago. Observations from the Event Horizon Telescope have allowed scientists to draw conclusions about Sagittarius A*, despite it being relatively small compared to other black holes in the universe. The black hole's mass is over 4 million solar masses, and it is located just 26,000 light-years away from Earth, providing an opportunity to observe details that would be invisible in more distant black holes. The paragraph also mentions the various emissions from the black hole across different wavelengths, such as X-rays, infrared, and radio waves, and how these emissions provide insights into the black hole's activity and its impact on the surrounding environment.
🌀 Unraveling the Spin Mystery of Sagittarius A*
The second paragraph delves into the unusual spin characteristics of Sagittarius A*, which spins rapidly and is misaligned with the rest of the Milky Way galaxy. This misalignment suggests that the black hole's spin axis does not align with the galactic disc, hinting at a possible massive collision in its past. Scientists used this evidence to create models based on the assumption that the misalignment was due to such a collision. Their models suggest a merger between two black holes with a mass ratio of about 4 to 1, occurring at an inclination of approximately 145 to 180°. This collision is believed to have resulted from the Gaia Enceladus Galaxy merging with the Milky Way around 9 billion years ago. This merger not only added significant mass to the Milky Way but also played a crucial role in finalizing the mass of Sagittarius A*. The event likely triggered a period of star formation and altered the shape of the Milky Way's disc, making it thicker and contributing to the formation of global clusters like NGC 20808. The study provides evidence for the hierarchical black hole growth theory, suggesting that massive black holes grow through collisions. This discovery is significant as it offers a potential explanation for the unusual spin of Sagittarius A* and supports the idea that such collisions are not only possible but also relatively frequent, with predictions that another such event could be observed within the next decade.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Event Horizon Telescope
💡Sagittarius A*
💡Black Hole Formation
💡Massive Black Holes
💡Cosmology
💡X-ray Detections
💡Emissions
💡Chimneys
💡Accretion
💡Black Hole Collision
💡Gaia-Enceladus Galaxy
Highlights
Recent discoveries about the central black hole of the Milky Way galaxy.
Discussion on the black hole image captured by the Event Horizon telescope.
The black hole's discovery led to the Nobel Prize a few years ago.
Study by Wang and Jang reveals how the black hole was most likely formed.
Researchers potentially discovered the origin story of Sagittarius A*.
Exploration of how massive black holes formed billions of years ago.
Observations from the Event Horizon telescope provide insights into the black hole.
Sagittarius A* has a mass of over 4 million solar masses.
Comparison of Sagittarius A* to the black hole in the M87 galaxy.
Visualization of the size difference between black holes.
Sagittarius A* allows observation of additional details due to its proximity.
Detection of various emissions from the black hole in different wavelengths.
Discovery of signs of previous emissions by observing echoes from gas around the black hole.
Observation of a star approaching the black hole and being disrupted.
Discovery of unusual formations called 'chimneys' guiding energy release.
Calculation of the amount of mass the black hole consumes annually.
Theories on how black holes grow: accretion of matter or massive black hole collision.
The final parac problem: lack of evidence on how supermassive black holes collide.
First piece of evidence suggesting black holes grow through collisions.
Observations from the Event Horizon telescope show the spin of Sagittarius A*.
The black hole's unusual spin suggests a massive collision in its past.
Modeling suggests a merger between two black holes with a 4 to 1 mass ratio.
The Gaia Enceladus Galaxy merged with the Milky Way approximately 9 billion years ago.
The merger likely resulted in a star-forming period and changed the shape of the Milky Way.
The hierarchical black hole growth theory gains evidence from Sagittarius A*'s formation.
The study suggests we may witness a black hole merger event within the next 10 years.
The discovery provides insights into the evolution of the Milky Way and the formation of its black hole.
Transcripts
hello INF full person this is Anton and
in this video we're going to discuss
some of the recent discoveries in
regards to the central black hole of the
Milky Way galaxy the black hole whose
image was captured by the iconic Event
Horizon telescope and the black hole
whose Discovery led to the Nobel Prize
just a few years ago and in the last few
months there's actually been a few
discoveries about the black hole but
today we're going to focus on one of the
major discoveries the discovery coming
from this study by Wang and Jang that in
essence discovers how our black hole was
most likely formed and when it was
formed by focusing on certain details
that were previously ignored and so in
other words the researchers behind the
study potentially discovered the origin
story of the Sagittarius AAR that's of
course the name for this black hole
while also to some extent answering a
few questions about the formations of
massive black holes which is actually
one of the major questions in modern
cosmology because scientists today are
trying to understand how these Giants
formed billions of years ago and what
exactly caused some of them to grow to
enormous sizes sometimes billions of
solar masses in Mass but in order to try
to start answering these questions we
obviously have to understand the central
black hole of our own Galaxy just a
little bit better and well thanks to the
observations from the Evan Horizon
telescope we can finally start making
certain conclusions although I guess the
the thing is even though this is the
closest super massive black hole to
planet Earth it's not particularly big
compared to a lot of other black holes
in other galaxies here the mass is just
over 4 million solar masses whereas the
black hole in the middle of m87 galaxy
is actually closer to 6 billion solar
masses and so there's definitely a
tremendous difference here's actually a
really intriguing visualization showing
us this size comparison but because
Sagittarius AAR is only 26,000 light
years away from us which is relatively
close when it comes to black holes it
actually allows us to see a lot of
additional details that would be
invisible for any other black hole out
there for example we can observe various
emissions in the x-rays infrared and
radio wheel lengths which we know this
black hole produces once in a while for
example here's one of the recent x-ray
detections showing us a sudden
brightening in the x-rays and a lot of
previous studies that focused on the
environment around this black hole
actually discovered signs of previous
emissions by observing various Echo
coming from the gas around the black
hole there was hundreds and thousands of
light years away and as a result today
we know that every few hundred years
there seems to be at least one major
eruption possibly the result of some
kind of a star approaching the black
hole Too Close being disrupted in the
process but this process of shredding
and destruction of stars despite being
relatively powerful does not actually
contribute enough Mass to the black hole
itself and that's because the majority
of mass ends up being ejected from the
black hole or turned into energy and
interestingly in one of the recent
studies researchers even discovered how
a lot of this energy seems to be guided
by something resulting in these unusual
formations scientists now refer to as
chimneys that eventually result in
various exhaust vents where a lot of
this energy is suddenly released all at
once but by observing the amount of
energy released here we can obviously
calculate the amount of mass of black
hole consumes every single year and well
it's actually quite minuscule as a
matter of fact if the black hole was
consuming this much mass it would not
grow to these sizes even after a 100
billion years and so even though we
found structures like the firy bubbles
you see right here that suggest very
powerful emissions even if these
emissions were happening every single
year the black hole would still not
really be big enough so it must have
grown to its current size through some
other means and right now we only think
there are possibly two means for black
holes to grow either accretion of matter
over time which as I just mentioned
potentially doesn't actually add enough
of mass or a massive black hole
collision and this is of course where we
don't really have any evidence as a
matter of fact this even results in
what's known as the final parac problem
it's basically an astrophysical Paradox
where the scientists don't actually know
how two super massive black holes could
possibly Collide you can learn more
about this in one of the videos any
description but as of today there's
almost a complete lack of evidence that
super massive black ho can Collide and
can thus grow larger yet we know super
massive black hos get really big so how
exactly do they do this and looks like
we finally have our first piece of
evidence from right here in the Milky
Way and the answer seems to be
collisions after all but how exactly do
we know this and what exactly is this
evidence and turns out that all of this
evidence was in these observations from
The Event Horizon telescope and it's the
evidence that shows us the spin of the
black hole turns out Sagittarius AAR is
just a little bit unusual it seems to
spin really fast but also in a little
bit of a misalign way compared to the
rest of the Galaxy in other words it
doesn't actually spin on the same axis
as the galactic disc itself and this was
enough evidence for the scientist behind
his paper to start crunching numbers and
to start producing models with basically
just one assumption the Assumption being
that this misalignment was the result of
a massive collision and so following a
bunch of models they finally discovered
one that seemed to fit the observations
here this was a merger between two
relatively massive black holes with a
mass ratio of about 4 to one so
essentially one of these black holes was
about four times as massive and the
Collision itself very likely happened
with the inclination of about 145 to
180° formed by the line of sight from
planet Earth and turns out that this
Collision basically replicates exactly
what we observe here and by having this
inclination and basically by knowing how
this small Galaxy possibly orbited
around the Milky Way they now think they
know exactly what happened and when this
is now believed to be the result of the
Gaia Enceladus Galaxy the signs of which
were discovered around the Milky Way
several years ago that merged with the
Milky Way approximately 9 billion years
ago and this seems to have been the last
major merger in the Milky Way adding a
huge amount of mass to the Galaxy but
also finalizing the mass of our black
hole and intriguingly this Collision
very likely resulted in a star forming
period that lasted for a few hundred
million years but also changing the
shape of the disc of the Milky Way
making it much thicker and also adding a
few Global clusters such as NGC 20808
you see right here and so it was very
likely the result of this merger that
basically fin Iz the Milky Wass black
hole suggesting that the black hole
itself kind of formed 9 billion years
ago and right now this is the best
explanation we have for the unusual spin
of Sagittarius A star and naturally if
the study here is correct it also
provides us with very important evidence
for how massive black holes most likely
grow and how they reach these massive
sizes this is actually known as the
hierarchical black hole murder Theory
and you can learn a little bit more
about it in one of the papers in the
description and and though technically
this is probably the most accepted
Theory up to this point there was just a
complete lack of evidence but now we
have some evidence from our own black
hole which provides us with some really
important answers and it technically
even tells us how frequent these
collisions are around the entire
universe in other words by learning that
9 billion years ago Sagittarius A star
was formed as a result of a merger we
can now infer a merger rate allowing us
to potentially detect one of these
events sometimes in the future and so
the conclusion from this paper is that
we should be seeing at least one of
these events sometimes in the near
future possibly within the next 10 years
but at least for now this is still a
pretty important discovery that helps us
understand the evolution of our own
Galaxy and naturally provides us with
more details for when the massive black
hole in the Milky Way actually formed
with the date being approximately 9
billion years ago but I'm sure in the
next few months we're going to discover
even more details and learn so much more
about Sagittarius AAR and what's
happening in its vicinity and so if
you'd like to learn more make sure to
subscribe share this with someone who
was learn about space and Sciences come
back tomorrow to learn something else
support this channel on patreon by
joining your channel membership or by
buying a wonderful person t-shirt you
can find in the description thank you
for watching stay wonderful I'll see you
tomorrow and as always bye-bye
[Music]
[Music]
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)