Milky

We thought that the heart of the Milky Way was an immense black hole. Mathematics has changed this idea for us

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Science advances, and this also means rewriting what we believed to be ‘absolute truth’ within different fields of knowledge. For example, for decades the scientific consensus has been unwavering in pointing out that in the heart of the Milky Way, about 27,000 light years from Earth, there is a huge supermassive black hole. But now this is not so clear thanks to a new study who has “seen” something even more interesting in this location. Breaking rules. It has been a study published this year the one who has proposed that the “monster” that governs our galaxy is not a black hole, but an ultradense core of dark matter. A compact object of almost four million solar masses that a priori would be composed entirely of fermionic dark matter. How do they know it? To support this bold claim, researchers have used the RAR model. This is very important, since, unlike the classical theory, which separates the central black hole from the halo of dark matter that surrounds the galaxy, this new approach unifies both concepts into one. In this way, it is proposed that dark matter particles are highly concentrated in the galactic center, forming a compact and massive nucleus, while on the outskirts they are diluted, forming the well-known and extensive dark halo. The big question. If it’s not a black hole, why does it “look” like one? And it is something normal that passes through our minds, especially after the year 2022 when the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) gave us the first “photograph” of Sgr A* where a bright ring could be seen surrounding a deep central darkness. And although this could be definitive proof that there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy, this is not the case. This is where previous key work published in 2024 comes into play, which pointed out that a dense core of fermions illuminated by an accretion disk generates a “shadow” visually indistinguishable from that cast by a classical black hole. That is, this dark matter is disguised to be able to deceive our telescopes when taking different measurements. Mathematical tests. In addition to this interesting theory, the scientific team has subjected it to a rigorous statistical examination using complex simulations and Bayesian analyzes to verify its robustness. Here they have shown that this dark matter core perfectly explains, for example, the orbits of the S stars that orbit the galactic center. But this unified model also fits precisely with the most recent data on the galaxy’s outer rotation curve provided by the Gaia DR3 mission. You have to look better. Although the mathematics add up and the model passes the statistical tests with flying colors, dethroning a supermassive black hole from the scientific imagination is not an easy task. And it is somewhat relevant, since the dark matter core lacks an event horizon, which is the absolute gravitational boundary of no return from which any element would be absorbed by the black hole. To know once and for all whether we are dealing with a black hole or a giant ball of dark matter, astronomers are aiming for the next generation of observations. We need to track what happens a little closer to the absolute center and future data of the GRAVITY interferometer (installed on the Very Large Telescope) will be key to detecting the subtle orbital deviations in the closest stars that would end the debate. Images | Dns Dgn BoliviaIntelligent In Xataka | We have a serious problem in our plans to colonize Mars: the astronauts’ blood is mutating

A giant wave is sweeping across the Milky Way. Scientists currently don’t know why.

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Our galaxy, Milky Wayis far from a quiet place. It spins, it wobbles and, as a new study just revealed, it also undulates. New ESA data have discovered a colossal wave, baptized as “the great wave” that propagates through the galactic disk in a very similar way to the waves that we have in a pond when we throw a stone. The study. This phenomenon, which has been identified by the team led by Eloisa Poggio of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy, is a “corrugation “large-scale vertical” that is superimposed on the already known deformation that our galaxy constantly suffers. In essence, we are facing a wave that causes entire stripes of stars to move “up” and “down.” Great proportions. It is nothing like the waves that we see on our beaches, of course, since we are talking about something on a galactic level. In this case, astronomers know since the 50’s that the disk of the Milky Way it’s not flatbut rather it is deformed (or “warped”) at its edges. Now this study adds an additional structure that no one knew was there. Thanks to Gaia’s incredibly precise measurements, which map the 3D position and 3D motion of stars, the team was able to analyze two populations of young stars: giant stars and classical Cepheids. These maps revealed a gigantic wave that is now coming to light. The figures. In order to understand the magnitude of this phenomenon, we can take into account the following parameters of this phenomenon: Height: the movement of the stars is about 150-200 parsecs, which is up to 650 light years above and below the galactic plane. Length: The structure spans at least 10,000 light years and possibly up to 20,000. Location: affects a vast section of the outer disk, in regions located tens of thousands of light years from the galactic center. The test. The most fascinating thing about the discovery is not just the shape of the wave, but the evidence that it is moving. “What makes this even more compelling is our ability, thanks to Gaia, to also measure the motions of stars within the galactic disk,” explains Poggio. To understand it, the team used a perfect analogue: the wave of a stadium. If we were to freeze the wave that is made in the stands of a stadium, we would see some people standing (the crest), others who have just sat down (the back part) and others who are about to get up (the front part). Something similar happens in the galaxy. The astronomers discovered that the stars with the highest vertical position (the crest) were not the same as the stars with the highest vertical velocity. The maximum speed point was displaced, with a 90º approach phase difference. This phase difference is irrefutable proof that it is a propagating wave. And not only that: the stars inside the corrugation also show a systematic radial motion of 10-15 km/s outward. The conclusion is clear: it is a wave that travels from the interior of the galaxy to its furthest reaches. There is a mystery. Researchers have measured the wave, but don’t know what caused it. The main hypothesis is that the Milky Way suffered an encounter or collision with a smaller dwarf galaxy, but it is not 100% certain. Previous simulations have shown that interaction with a satellite galaxy, such as Sagittarius, can excite exactly these types of vertical waves and corrugations in the galactic disk. This “big wave” is much larger and located much further away than the famous Radcliffe wavea filament of gas about 9,000 light years long located near our Sun. Although both are undulations, scientists believe that they are two different characteristics, although they do not rule out that they may be related in some way. Since the young stars studied (giants and Cepheids) were born from galactic gas, the team suspects that the wave not only carries the stars, but also the gas itself from the disk. The stars would have simply inherited the motion of the gas from which they formed, preserving a “memory” of the wave. Now the investigation must continue. Astronomers are looking forward to Gaia’s fourth data release, which will provide even more precise measurements and help create detailed maps to perhaps finally reveal the origin of our galaxy’s undulating heart. Images | Dns Dgn In Xataka | When stars formed has always been one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. And we are closer to solving it

The collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda has begun. The good news is that it will not be necessary to fill a friendly part

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We know that the gaseous extremes of our galaxy and our neighboring galaxy are being touched, but there is no worry. Although astronomers safely a fusion of the Milky Way with Andromeda, they now question it. Short. A astropathic team has just published the biggest portrait of Andromeda, our neighboring galaxy, thanks to the Hubble observations. The image covers 600 fields of vision of the space telescope and shows the entire Andromeda album, which now has more than 200 million censored stars (two orders of magnitude more than those known so far). Although Andromeda’s gas bubbles are already touching the Milky Way, the new data 50% reduce probability that galaxies collide. Gaseous collision. In 2020, the Amiga program mapped 43 quasars in the background, confirming that Andromeda’s plasma halo, a hot gas bubble that measures two million light years, It flasses with the gas halo of the Milky Way. In a way, the gaseous bodies of both galaxies are already being touched, although in a faint way that neither the stars nor the planets notice it, so it will not be necessary to fill a friendly part of an accident. Maybe it never happens. The New 2.5 Gigapixel image of AndromedaResult of the PHAT and PHASET observation campaigns of the Hubble, it is not only another feat of the space telescope. It has served to question the theory that Andromeda and the Milky Way will end up merging. The classical narrative said that both spiral galaxies They would melt in about 4.5 billion yearsforming a giant elliptical. The new model, published in Nature Astronomyreduce the probability of fusion to 50% after 100,000 simulations. How they know. Astronomers at the University of Washington integrated the new Hubble data and the Gaia space telescope of the European space agency in their simulations. In addition to Andromeda and the Milky Way, they included the updated mass of the Great Cloud of Magallanes and m33. The key is in these two satellite galaxies. M33 Andromeda and the probability of shock increases. But the great cloud of Magallanes, with an almost perpendicular orbit, pushes the Milky Way out of the plane and reduces the meeting rate. In the most extreme stage, the front blow is still possible; In the softest, both galaxies will limit themselves to orbly during eons. What we were. The contact of the Andromeda plasma halos and the Milky Way suggests that the exchange of gas between both galaxies has already begun, but that does not guarantee a galactic fusion: the discs are still 2.5 million light years. In order for the merger to occur, the friction of the hals would have to stop the galaxies until the separation is 300,000 light years. Half of the trajectories simulated by the new study discard it. In Xataka | Physics is broken and we have more and more evidence: a new estimate of the Hubble constant delves into the problem

An object never seen on the Milky Way is emitting radio waves with X -rays exactly every 44 minutes

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The Milky Way continues to present new mysteries through the telescope. An international astronomer team has discovered an objectuntil now unknown, which emits powerful radio bursts with a watchmaker’s precision. But the strangest thing is that we know that they are accompanied by X -rays. Context. One of the cosmic fashion phenomena in astronomy magazines are transitory long -period radio objects (LPRT), whose understanding is still in diapers. Since 2022 only 10 have been identified, which were overlooked or confused with other celestial objects. LPRT emit bursts of radio waves periodically, but with much longer intervals (of minutes or hours) than traditional pulsaries, which usually have periods of second or milliseconds. The progress in radio telescopes has opened a window to the transitory universe that allows astronomers to identify LPRTS more easily. One of the most powerful radio telescopes is the Australian Matrix Askap, which consists of 36 parabolic antennas 12 meters in diameter acting as a single instrument of 4,000 square meters. Double surprise. Astronomers have just added a new layer of complexity to the world of LPRTS with the discovery of Askap J1832-0911, an object that emits powerful radio wave explosions. Your pulses last two minutes and repeat every 44 minutes and 12 seconds. The finding is important because it is just the tenth LPRT discovered and places the new object among the 30 most brilliant radio sources in the sky. But the surprise came to cross the data with observations of the NASA X -ray Space Telescope. Chandra had observed the same area of ​​the night sky at the same time as Askap (what scientists have compared with “finding a needle in a haystack”). The Observatory discovered X -ray emissions from the same point and with the same cycle of 44 minutes and 12 seconds. It is the first time that an LPRT emitting waves of both frequencies. Collapsed lines. ASKAP J1832-0911 is around 15,000 light years from Earth, in a very populated region of our galaxy. This location greatly hinders its study in other wavelengths, because there are many objects that could be obscuring it, and an immense amount of dust that blocks our line of vision. Infrared searches have also not yielded results, although hope is put into future observations with the James Webb space telescope. Unlike other LPRTS that seem to “light” and “turn off” intermittently, the object has been active during the 10 months that observation has lasted, although with a variable brightness. The million dollar question. What exactly is Askap J1832-0911? There are many theories about what type of object could be producing such regular and energy signs. This object is different from everything we have seen before, but researchers do not believe it is an extraterrestrial civilization sending messages because the emission spectra are too broad. Instead, two main suspects shuffle. The first is an old magnetar: a neutron star with incredibly powerful magnetic fields in his last stage of life, possibly orbited by another star. The second is an ultra -freeized white dwarf: the remnant of a low -dough star at the end of its evolution, with an exceptionally strong magnetic field and a companion star. But for this theory to fit, the white dwarf would need the most intense magnetic field ever detected in one of its class, surpassing the 5 × 109 gauss. We know nothing. “Finding such an object suggests the existence of many more”, Nanda Rea saysCo-author of the study and professor of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) in Spain. “The discovery of its X -ray transitory emission opens new perspectives on its mysterious nature.” This discovery not only adds a new mystery to the list of things that we do not understand the universe. He also suggests that LPRTS, of which we barely know 10, are more energy than was thought. Hunting to find more objects like this and decipher its origin has only begun. Image | POT

The Webb Telescope observed the black hole in the center of the Milky Way. Has discovered a chaotic light show

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Three years ago we saw for the first time The Supermassive Black Hole that inhabits the center of our galaxy. Now the James Webb space telescope has opened a window to study its surroundings. And it has turned out to be a chaotic show of lights that never stops. Context. In the center of the Milky Way inhabits A gigantic black hole called Sagittarius a*. Astronomers have managed to unravel the extreme dynamics of their accretion disk, the spiral of gas and dust that turns around it. To do this, they observed it for 48 hours (distributed in several periods of 2023 and 2024) using the Nircam instrument of the Webb Telescope. A disco ball. The observations revealed that sgr a* emits A continuous game of lights and flashes which is characterized by constant blinking interspersed with a series of intense eruptions. These emissions have a weak and continuous component, probably originated in the internal turbulence of the disc, and a bright and short -term component, eruptions associated with magnetic reconnection, in which magnetic fields collide and release huge amounts of energy. Fluctuations can occur in seconds or as changes that extend for days, weeks and months. The explanation. The study of these variable emissions, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letterssuggests that fluctuations intensify at major scales. According to researchers, the small internal disturbances of the disk, associated with fluctuations in density and magnetic field, generate the faint flashes, while large eruptions are related to specific events of magnetic reconnection, comparable to the solar flares, but at levels much older energy. “In our data we observe a constantly changing luminosity,” Farhad Yusef-Zadeh explainsmain author of the study. “Suddenly, Boom! A great explosion of brightness appears suddenly and then calms down, without following a fixed pattern.” This nature, apparently random, demonstrates that the accretion disc is regenerated all the time, causing between five and six and six Great daily rashes, in addition to multiple intermittent outbreaks. The lags. An advantage of the NIRCAM instrument of the Webb Telescope is its ability to observe two infrared wavelengths simultaneously (2.1 and 4.8 micrometers). This allowed researchers to compare how the brightness of eruptions with each wavelength changed. Surprisingly, they discovered that the events observed in the shortest wavelength changed shine a little before the events of the longest. “It is the first time that we see a delay in the measurements of these wavelengths,” said Yusef-Zadeh. “We notice that the longest wavelength is delayed between three and 40 seconds.” This finding is a key clue that energy particles lose energy as they cool, a process known as syncrotron cooling. New observations. Researchers now plan to make a continuous observation of up to 24 hours from SGR A* using the Webb Telescope, which will help them determine if eruptions follow repetitive patterns or if they are truly random. Each flash and every flicker on the accretion disk of the supermassive hole offers us a deeper understanding of physics on the events horizon, one of the most extreme environments in the universe. In other words, it helps us discover how space-time and matter behave under the influence of overwhelming gravity. Image | NASA, ESA, CSA, RALF CRAWFORD (STSCI) In Xataka | The Webb Telescope has managed to penetrate the nucleus of a neighboring galaxy, home to a furiously active black hole In Xataka | Telescopes from all over the world worked together in this image: the black hole of the Milky Way and its magnetic fields

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