A group of scientists recently made an important discovery regarding the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Using NASA’s Chandra These findings were revealed in the latest issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Their analysis showed that Sagittarius A*, located about 26,000 light-years away from our planet, is spinning at an astonishing speed.
This rapid rotation exerts enormous force, effectively pulling and distorting the surrounding fabric of space-time, as if compressing it like the squeeze of a football, as reported by CNN.
“With this spin, Sagittarius A* will dramatically change the shape of space-time in its environment,” Ruth Daly, the study’s lead author, told CNN.
“We are used to thinking and living in a world in which all spatial dimensions are equivalent – the distance to the ceiling and the distance to the wall and the distance to the floor… they are all more or less linear, it is not the case that the one that is. totally crushed compared to the others.
“But if you have a rapidly rotating black hole, the space-time around it is not symmetrical,” Daly said, according to CNN. “The spinning black hole drags all of space-time with it… it compresses space-time and it looks a bit like a football.”
That may sound alarming, but don’t worry; the black hole is far too far away to affect us here on Earth.
But, Daly said, by understanding how black holes function, scientists can learn more about the formation and evolution of galaxies like ours.
