The image of supermassive black hole Sagittarius A * was created using data from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. At the same time several telescopes, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, were doing observations of their own.
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 [ music ]
00:03 Visit Chandra's beautiful universe.
00:06 Sagittarius A*
00:09 As the Event Horizon Telescope, known as the EHT,
00:14 collected data for its remarkable new image of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole,
00:19 a legion of other telescopes, including three NASA X-ray observatories in space, was also watching.
00:26 Astronomers are using these observations to learn more about how the black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy,
00:33 known as Sagittarius A*, Sag A* for short, interacts with and feeds off its environment some 27,000 light-years from Earth.
00:44 While the EHT observed Sag A* in April 2017 to make the new image,
00:51 scientists in the collaboration also peered at the same black hole with facilities that detect different wavelengths of light.
00:59 In this multi-wavelength observing campaign, they assembled X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory,
01:07 Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope, or NuSTAR, and the Neil Gerald Swift Observatory.
01:14 Telescopes outside of NASA involved included the East Asian Very Long Baseline Interferometer, or VLBI, network that observed radio emission.
01:24 There was also the Global 3-millimeter VLBI Array,
01:28 along with infrared data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.
01:34 One important goal of this so-called multi-wavelength observing campaign was to catch X-ray flares,
01:41 which are thought to be driven by magnetic processes similar to those seen on the Sun,
01:46 but can be tens of millions of times more powerful.
01:50 These flares occur approximately daily within the area of sky observed by the EHT,
01:56 a region slightly larger than the event horizon of Sag A*, the point of no return for matter falling inward.
02:04 Another goal was to gain a critical glimpse of what is happening on larger scales.
02:11 While the EHT result shows striking similarities between Sag A* and the previous black hole it imaged, M87,
02:19 the wider picture is much more complex.
02:23 Both of these goals were successfully met.
02:30 The researchers managed to catch X-ray flares, or outbursts, from Sag A* during the EHT observations,
02:37 a faint one seen with Chandra and Swift, and a moderately bright one seen with Chandra and Nu*.
02:44 Astronomers have seen X-ray flares with a similar brightness to the latter with Chandra,
02:49 but this is the first time that the EHT simultaneously observed Sag A*.
02:55 This offers an extraordinary opportunity to identify the responsible mechanism using actual images.
03:02 Astronomers were also able to learn more about the wider and complex picture of accretion.
03:08 One of the biggest ongoing questions surrounding black holes is exactly how they collect,
03:14 ingest, or even expel material orbiting them at near light speed, in a process known as accretion.
03:22 This process is fundamental to the formation and growth of planets, stars, and black holes of all sizes throughout the universe.
03:32 Scientists will be able to use the data being released today to improve and hone their theoretical models
03:38 of how black holes behave and interact with their surroundings.
03:42 They will continue to study this unique combination to learn more about Sag A* and black holes throughout our universe.
03:51 [Music]
03:57 [Music]
04:01 [Music]
04:05 [Music]
04:09 [Music]
04:13 [Music]
04:17 [Music]
04:21 [Music]
04:25 [Music]