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astronomer studying theMilky Way ’s supermassiveblack holehave found " compelling grounds " that could finally help explain its mysterious past times .

Located 26,000 clean - year away in the center of our galaxy , Sagittarius A * is a giant rip in space - meter that is 4 million multiplication the mess of our sun and 14.6 million miles ( 23.5 million kilometers ) wide .

A swirling ring of orange light

A recent photo of Sagittarius A from the Event Horizon Telescope provides the first glimpse of the supermassive black hole’s spiraling magnetic field lines.*

But how the disastrous hollow came to be , and why it isspinning amazingly fastand out of orientation with the rest of the galaxy , rest unknown . Now , data from the scope thatfirst capture the disastrous hole ’s image in 2022has revealed a clue : The Sagittarius A * we see today was give birth from a cataclysmic merger with another jumbo black jam billions of years ago — and it ’s still demonstrate the effects of this violent hit . The researcher bring out their findings Sept. 6 in the journalNature Astronomy .

" This breakthrough paves the way for our understanding of how supermassive smutty holes acquire and germinate , " study lead authorYihan Wang , an astrophysicist at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas ( UNLV),said in a argument . " The misaligned high spin of Sgr A * indicates that it may have merged with another black hole , dramatically altering its amplitude and orientation of spin . "

Despite wee-wee up a scant 0.0003 % of theMilky Way ’s mass , Sagittarius A * is a herculean locomotive that periodically imbibe matter in before spitting it out at near - visible radiation - upper , creating a feedback process that has shaped our extragalactic nebula since its showtime .

The giant radio jets stretching around 5 million light-years across and an enormous supermassive black hole at the heart of a spiral galaxy.

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Scientists think the gigantic disgraceful hole started out much like others , born from the prostration of a giant star or gas cloud before gorging on anything that do too close . After swelling to a atrocious sizing , black holes can even feed on other supermassive black holes .

Supermassive black hole mergers occur when entire galaxy immix together . protrusion and rick in the Milky Way ’s record point it likely jar withat least a dozen galaxiesduring the past 12 billion year . But astronomer still are n’t sure how important black hole mergers are when it comes to creating supermassive smutty holes , or whether these tears in space - time can produce to such mind - boggling proportions only by consuming gas and junk .

An illustration of a black circle in space shooting a beam of light out of its center

To look for direct grounds of Sagittarius A * ’s blood line , the researchers behind the new study used data strike from the Event Horizon Telescope to create a model of the black hole ’s conduct throughout time . Across a number of simulation , the stargazer discovered that the black hole ’s strange spin — which is whole misaligned with our galaxy ’s rotation — was best explained by a massive uniting event with the supermassive black hole of another galaxy .

— James Webb Space Telescope discovers sure-enough black hole in the universe of discourse — a cosmic monster 10 million times heavier than the sun

— 1st effigy of our extragalactic nebula ’s ' fatal hole tenderness ' unveiled

An illustration of a black hole surrounded by a cloud of dust, with an inset showing a zoomed in view of the black hole

— disgraceful cakehole may be swallowing unseeable matter that slow up the movement of star topology

" This merger likely happen around 9 billion year ago , follow the Milky Way’smerger with the Gaia - Enceladus beetleweed , " field co - authorBing Zhang , a professor of cathartic and astronomy at UNLV , order in the affirmation . This merger not only bring evidence to the estimation that opprobrious holes can grow ever larger by gobble up their own form , but also " provides perceptiveness into the dynamic history of our wandflower , " Zhang added .

To uncover further evidence of elephantine black muddle conflate across the existence , the researchers say they are waitress for the construction of space - based gravitational waving telescopes such asNASA ’s and theESA’sLaser Interferometer Space Antenna ( LISA ) project . Once LISA is lifted to space in 2035 , it will observe the shock wave created inspace - timewhen supermassive black holes collide .

A Hubble Space Telescope image of LRG 3-757, known as the "Cosmic Horseshoe".

A close-up view of a barred spiral galaxy. Two spiral arms reach horizontally away from the core in the centre, merging into a broad network of gas and dust which fills the image. This material glows brightest orange along the path of the arms, and is darker red across the rest of the galaxy. Through many gaps in the dust, countless tiny stars can be seen, most densely around the core.

An illustration of a black hole with a small round object approaching it, causing a burst of energy

An illustration of a black hole with light erupting from it

A lot of galaxies are seen as bright spots on a dark background. Toward the left, the JWST is shown in an illustration.

A bright red arc of light seen against greyish red clouds in space. hundreds of stars dot the background

an illustration of a base on the moon

An aerial photo of mountains rising out of Antarctica snowy and icy landscape, as seen from NASA�s Operation IceBridge research aircraft.

A tree is silhouetted against the full completed Annular Solar Eclipse on October 14, 2023 in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.

Screen-capture of a home security camera facing a front porch during an earthquake.

Circular alignment of stones in the center of an image full of stones

Three-dimensional rendering of an HIV virus