American radio astronomers have discovered unusual objects at the very center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. They saw strange glowing lines in the radio range, similar to sequences of dots and dashes, pointing directly at the central supermassive black hole. This is stated in the study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
In 1982, a professor at Northwestern University (USA), radio astronomer Farhad Yousef-Zade discovered unusual thin but long lines emanating from the compact radio source Sagittarius A*. Astronomers identify it with the supermassive black hole around which the Milky Way revolves.
These long lines of unknown origin extend from the black hole perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy. Later, the scientist’s team discovered two giant bubbles in the radio range near the Sagittarius A* object.
In a new study, Yusef-Zade reported the discovery of no less strange horizontal short lines and points located already in the very plane of the galaxy in the vicinity of a black hole. “We have always thought about vertical filaments and their origin,” explained the scientist. “But I never thought there might be others out there in the galaxy plane.” While both populations of objects are undeniably linked to past black hole activity and point directly to them, that’s where their similarities end.
The vertical filaments have a magnetic field and contain particles moving at relativistic speeds. Horizontal ones “glow” due to heat radiation. Vertical lines managed to count several hundred, horizontal – several times less. And if the length of the vertical reaches 150 light years, then the length of the horizontal is 5-10 light years.
It was possible to establish the age of the horizontal formations, it is estimated at 6 million years. According to Yousef-Zade, the discovery leaves many questions unanswered.
Scientists can only speculate as a result of what process the unusual horizontal lines appeared. “We think they could have formed during activity millions of years ago,” Yusef-Zadeh explained. – It appears to be the result of the interaction of flowing matter (from the black hole) with nearby objects. Our work will not be finished. We will always need new observations and tests of our ideas to complete our analysis.
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