The supermassive black hole “Sagittarius A” in the middle of the Milky Way, which was previously considered sleeping, returned to life for a short time at the end of the nineteenth century, according to the results of a study published in the journal “Nature”.
The Al-Rai daily reports, a study says that the black hole, which has a mass of about four million times greater than the sun and is located about 27,000 light-years from Earth, woke up from its long slumber about 200 years ago. The celestial body spent about a year swallowing various cosmic bodies before returning to rest again, according to the researchers.
“Imagine that a bear goes into hibernation after devouring everything around it,” said Frederick Marin, the study’s author.
Marin added that during this phase of activity in the late 19th century, the black hole was “a million times brighter than it is today.”
Observing this centuries-old activity, scientists noticed that nearby galactic molecular clouds began emitting X-ray light so dramatically that it seemed as if “a single glowworm hidden in a forest suddenly became as bright as the sun,” French researchers said.
The astronomers tracked this X-ray light using NASA’s X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and found that the clues point directly to Sagittarius A, which Marin said “emitted an echo of its past activity.”
But while scientists are intrigued by the study’s findings, the reasons for the black hole’s resurgence remain a mystery. One prevailing hypothesis is that a star or cloud of gas may have drifted too close, awakening Sagittarius A from its dormant state.
The researchers hope that the study will provide important insights into what triggers black holes to emerge from periods of rest to activity.
And last year, astronomers published online the first ever images of a black hole, or more specifically the glowing ring of gas that surrounds it and confirms its existence.
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