{"id":846537,"date":"2026-06-05T16:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/846537\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T16:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:42:15","slug":"massive-void-near-milky-ways-black-hole-could-solve-a-50-year-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/846537\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Void Near Milky Way\u2019s Black Hole Could Solve a 50-Year Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theoretically speaking, black holes should breathe stuff out as they suck stuff in. But for 50 years, astronomers weren\u2019t able to confirm this was true for the supermassive black hole in our own galaxy\u2014until now.<\/p>\n

In a study<\/a> published yesterday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astrophysicists at Northwestern University presented potential evidence of\u00a0a giant, cone-shaped hole in the cold gas surrounding Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. When the team calculated how much energy was required to create this cavity, they found there had to be some input from the black hole\u2014something like a powerful wind or jet. To arrive at these conclusions, the team compiled five years\u2019 worth of observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless a black hole exists in a perfect vacuum, it must blow a wind somehow,\u201d study co-lead author Mark Gorski said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cWith new observations, this is the first time we\u2019ve had a clean enough view to see the wind\u2019s imprint. We looked at the data and said, \u2018There it is. There is the thing that everybody\u2019s been looking for for 50 years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The edge of chaos <\/p>\n

All sizeable galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their center. According to the study, these black holes are crucial to galaxy evolution. As black holes are \u201cfed\u201d materials, the stuff getting sucked in spirals inward and eventually approaches the speed of light. The energy and pressure generated in this process produce hot, powerful winds that fly outward from the black hole, the paper explained.<\/p>\n

Existing theories are fairly good at capturing these processes\u2014partly why astrophysicists predicted<\/a> in 1971 that Sagittarius A* would also generate winds and jets. However, given the logistical challenges of studying black holes, there hasn\u2019t since been a \u201cuniversally accepted signature of a presently active wind from Sagittarius A*,\u201d the study noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo observe our own black hole, we have to look through the plane of our galaxy,\u201d co-lead author Elena Murchikova explained. \u201cThat means we have to peer through gas, dust, and ionized structures, and you can\u2019t really see through all of that easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing past the chaos <\/p>\n

With ALMA data, Gorski and Murchikova managed to see through all of the gas, dust, and ionized structures. After carefully removing the black hole\u2019s radio glow, they landed on a sharp image of a giant, cone-shaped cavity devoid of cold molecular gas. The discovery left the pair \u201cgobsmacked,\u201d according to the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge absence of material,\u201d Gorski said. \u201cWe calculated how much energy was needed to create this cavity. It is more than can be provided by the stars in that area. Basically, there has to be input from the supermassive black hole. And, if you follow the shape of the cone, it\u2019s pointed directly at the black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AComposite image of the Milky Way center, combining radio data from ALMA and X-ray data from Chandra. Credit: NASA\/CXC\/UMass\/D. Wang et al. (X-ray); ALMA\/ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO\/S. Longmore et al. (Radio); ESO\/D. Minniti et al. (Background) <\/p>\n

In fact, the cone was so strange that Murchikova\u2019s first instinct was to doubt her own analysis. But the researchers\u2019 apprehension faded as additional X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory \u201cslotted in perfectly\u201d with their initial results, Gorski added.<\/p>\n

Not an exception <\/p>\n

Once the team became certain of its discovery, the researchers put together a list of what they currently understood of the wind, such as its orientation, activity, and strength. The study\u2019s estimates indicate the wind has been active for at least 20,000 years. Compared to some other known galactic jets, the wind is on the weaker side.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, Sagittarius A* is a \u201ctypical example\u201d of underfed, dormant supermassive black holes in the universe, the paper noted. Certainly, it\u2019s \u201cvery attractive to study black holes when they are in the fireworks stage, but that\u2019s not actually their dominant state,\u201d Murchikova said. Given Sagittarius A*\u2019s relative closeness to us, the findings may inform future investigations into our local black hole and, by extension, new insights into the activity of similar entities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Theoretically speaking, black holes should breathe stuff out as they suck stuff in. But for 50 years, astronomers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":846538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[28891,5163,16814,86799,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-846537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astrophysics","tag-black-holes","tag-milky-way","tag-sagittarius-a","tag-science","tag-space","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116698504729180464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}