The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute announced on the 22nd that it has confirmed that the structure of the Sagittarius A black hole (Sgr A), which is known as the closest supermassive black hole to Earth, is close to a circular shape.
The Sagittarius A black hole is the closest to Earth and is the best object for studying phenomena that occur around black holes.
To examine the structure of this black hole in detail, astronomers applied VLBI (Very Long Range Interferometry) technology, which connects several radio telescopes on Earth, to create a virtual telescope with an aperture as large as the distance between the telescopes.
The East Asian VLBI Observation Network (EAVN) in which Japan (VERA) and China (CVN) participated, centering on the Korea Space Radio Observation Network (KVN), consisted of a total of 21 radio telescopes, including three KVNs.
In this study, 10 units observed a 1.3 cm wavelength band and 8 units observed a 7 mm wavelength band, respectively. KVN 3 was involved in both wavelength observations.
A difficulty in observing black holes is light scattering caused by gas clouds around the center. To overcome this, the research team applied the latest light scattering model research results to EAVN analysis.
The observation of the Sagittarius A black hole in the shape of a circle suggests that the axis of rotation of the attachment flow, which is formed when the black hole attracts surrounding gases with gravity, points toward our solar system, the team explained.
“The Sagittarius A black hole is much closer than the first ever observed M87 black hole, but it is a difficult object to observe because it is surrounded by scattering gas clouds,” said Dr. Cho Il-je. I can see you,” he explained.
The results of this study were published in The Astrophysical Journal.
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