Scientists have found hundreds of mysterious structures in the heart of the Milky Way
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Scientists have already studied long vertical magnetic filaments in the Milky Way. However, they recently discovered new shorter structures that extend radially toward the center of the black hole inside the galaxy, writes Science alert with reference to The Astrophysical Journal Letters. As scientists from Northwestern University in the USA note, these magnetized “filaments” are probably remnants of the flow of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). It interacted with the surrounding gaseous atmosphere several million years ago. The center of Sgr A* is currently quite quiet, but filamentous remnants suggest that the galactic center was relatively recently active. All filamentous structures. Photo: Northwestern University “It was a surprise to suddenly discover a new population of structures that seem to point in the direction of a black hole. We had to do a lot to make sure we weren’t fooling ourselves. These threads aren’t random: they’re connected to flow of our black hole. By studying them, we could learn more about the black hole’s rotation and the orientation of the accretion disk,” says astrophysicist Farhad Youssef-Zadeh of Northwestern University. He added that it is very lucky to find something ordered in the chaotic field of the galactic core. Such threads were first discovered in the 1980s. Then the scientists saw about 1,000 long, vertical, magnetic structures up to about 150 light-years long, hanging in a surprisingly orderly manner like the strings of a harp. Scientists suggest that this alignment was caused either by gusts of wind from an active supermassive black hole or by turbulence in the intergalactic medium. Only short threads The new structures look more like strokes than lines. They are short: hundreds of structures about 5 to 10 light-years long, arranged horizontally along the galactic plane rather than vertically like other filaments. The scientists suggest that the radial streaks may be the result of the pressure created by the jet stream from Sgr A*. Analysis of their size and position shows that this happened about 6 million years ago. “We believe that they must have been the result of activity that took place several million years ago. It seems to be the result of the interaction of this outflowing material with nearby objects,” says Youssef-Zadeh. Since the discovery of new structures is possible thanks to the improvement of technology, astronomers believe that the full history and dynamics of the center of the Milky Way will not be solved soon. Read also: Astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth
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