Recently, science has become known for certain what a black hole is. But as soon as scientists figured out this phenomenon of the Universe, a new, much more complex and confusing one fell on them: a supermassive black hole, which you can’t even call black, but rather blindingly white. Why? But because it was precisely such a definition that was given to the center of each galaxy, which glows and shines. But once you get there, and besides blackness, nothing remains. What kind of puzzle is this?
Memo about black holes
It is known for certain that a simple black hole is a once shining star. At a certain stage of its existence, its gravitational forces began to increase exorbitantly, while the radius remained the same. If earlier the star "bursted", and it grew, now the forces concentrated in its core began to attract all other components to itself. Its edges "collapse" on the center, forming an incredible collapse, which becomes a black hole. Such "former stars" no longer shine, but are absolutely invisible from the outside.objects of the universe. But they are very noticeable, as they literally absorb everything that falls into their gravitational radius. It is not known what lies beyond such an event horizon. Based on the facts, any body with such a huge gravity will literally crush. Recently, however, not only science fiction writers, but also scientists have been of the opinion that these could be some kind of space tunnels for traveling long distances.
What is a quasar
Similar properties have a supermassive black hole, in other words, a quasar. This is the core of the galaxy, which has a super-powerful gravitational field that exists due to its mass (millions or billions of solar masses). The principle of formation of supermassive black holes has not yet been established. According to one version, the cause of such a collapse is too compressed gas clouds, the gas in which is extremely discharged, and the temperature is incredibly high. The second version is the increment of the masses of various small black holes, stars and clouds to a single gravitational center.
Our Galaxy
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is not among the most powerful. The fact is that the galaxy itself has a spiral structure, which, in turn, forces all its participants to be in constant and fairly fast motion. Thus, the gravitational forces, which could be concentrated exclusively in the quasar, seem to dissipate, and increase uniformly from the edge to the core. It is easy to guess that things are in elliptical or, say, irregulargalaxies are the opposite. On the "outskirts" space is extremely rarefied, planets and stars practically do not move. But in the quasar itself, life literally abounds.
Parameters of the Milky Way Quasar
Using radio interferometry, the researchers were able to calculate the mass of a supermassive black hole, its radius and gravitational force. As noted above, our quasar is dim, it is difficult to call it super powerful, but even the astronomers themselves did not expect that the true results would be like that. So Sagittarius A (that's the name of the core) equates to four million solar masses. Moreover, according to obvious data, this black hole does not even absorb matter, and the objects that are in its environment do not heat up. An interesting fact was also noticed: the quasar is literally buried in gas clouds, the matter of which is extremely rarefied. Perhaps, the evolution of the supermassive black hole of our galaxy is just beginning now, and in billions of years it will become a real giant that will attract not only planetary systems, but also other, smaller star clusters.
No matter how small the mass of our quasar, most of all scientists were struck by its radius. Theoretically, such a distance can be overcome in a few years on one of the modern spacecraft. The dimensions of a supermassive black hole are slightly larger than the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, namely, they are 1.2 astronomicalunits. The gravitational radius of this quasar is 10 times smaller than the main diameter. With such indicators, naturally, matter simply cannot singulate until it directly crosses the event horizon.
Paradoxical facts
The Milky Way Galaxy belongs to the category of young and new star clusters. This is evidenced not only by its age, parameters and position on the map of space known to man, but also by the power that its supermassive black hole possesses. However, as it turned out, not only young space objects can have “ridiculous” parameters. Many quasars, which have incredible power and gravity, surprise with their properties:
- Ordinary air is often denser than supermassive black holes.
- Getting into the event horizon, the body will not experience tidal forces. The fact is that the center of the singularity is deep enough, and in order to reach it, you will have to go a long way, not even suspecting that there will be no way back.
Giants of our Universe
One of the most voluminous and oldest objects in space is the supermassive black hole in the OJ 287 quasar. This is a whole black hole located in the constellation of Cancer, which, by the way, is very poorly visible from Earth. It is based on a binary system of black holes, therefore, there are two event horizons and two points of singularity. The larger object has a mass of 18 billion solar masses, almost like a small full-fledged galaxy. This companion is static, only objects that hit it rotate.gravity radius. The smaller system weighs 100 million solar masses and also has an orbital period of 12 years.
Dangerous neighborhood
The OJ 287 galaxies and the Milky Way have been found to be neighbors - the distance between them is approximately 3.5 billion light-years. Astronomers do not exclude the version that in the near future these two cosmic bodies will collide, forming a complex stellar structure. According to one version, it is precisely because of the approach to such a gravitational giant that the movement of planetary systems in our galaxy is constantly accelerating, and the stars are becoming hotter and more active.
Supermassive black holes are actually white
At the very beginning of the article, a very sensitive issue was raised: the color in which the most powerful quasars stand before us can hardly be called black. With the naked eye, even in the simplest photograph of any galaxy, you can see that its center is a huge white dot. Why then do we think it is a supermassive black hole? Photographs taken through telescopes show us a huge cluster of stars that the core attracts to itself. Planets and asteroids that orbit nearby reflect due to their close proximity, thereby multiplying all the light present nearby. Since quasars do not drag all nearby objects at lightning speed, but only keep them in their gravitational radius, they do not disappear, but begin to glow even more, because their temperature is growing rapidly. As for the usualblack holes that exist in outer space, then their name is fully justified. The dimensions are relatively small, but the force of gravity is colossal. They simply “eat up” the light without releasing a single quantum from their banks.
Cinema and a supermassive black hole
Gargantua - this term humanity has become widely used in relation to black holes after the movie "Interstellar" was released. Looking at this picture, it is difficult to understand why this particular name was chosen and where the connection is. But the original script planned to create three black holes, two of which would be named Gargantua and Pantagruel, taken from a satirical novel by Francois Rabelais. After the changes made, only one "rabbit hole" remained, for which the first name was chosen. It is worth noting that in the film the black hole is depicted as realistically as possible. So to speak, the design of her appearance was carried out by the scientist Kip Thorne, who was based on the studied properties of these space bodies.
How did we know about black holes?
If it were not for the theory of relativity, which was proposed by Albert Einstein at the beginning of the twentieth century, no one would have even paid attention to these mysterious objects. A supermassive black hole would be regarded as an ordinary cluster of stars in the center of the galaxy, and ordinary, small ones would go completely unnoticed. But today, thanks to theoretical calculations and observations thatconfirm their correctness, we can observe such a phenomenon as the curvature of space-time. Modern scientists say that finding the "rabbit hole" is not so difficult. Around such an object, matter behaves unnaturally, it not only shrinks, but sometimes glows. A bright halo forms around the black dot, which is visible through a telescope. In many ways, the nature of black holes helps us understand the history of the formation of the Universe. At their center is a point of singularity, similar to the one from which the entire world around us previously developed.
It is not known for certain what can happen to a person who crosses the event horizon. Will gravity crush him, or will he end up in a completely different place? The only thing that can be said with complete certainty is that the gargantua slows down time, and at some point the clock hand stops completely and irrevocably.
