Brightening in a mysterious manner within the view of the radio telescope, hundreds of unexplainable structures may be remnants of a violent event related to the black hole Sagittarius A*.
The study led by Professor Farhad Yusef-Zadeh from Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, reveals that these are filamentary structures, resembling serpents or gigantic, tangled strands, stretching 5-10 light-years long—thousands of times the distance from the Sun to Pluto.
Mysterious, giant structures resembling serpents or tangled spider silk intertwine around the “monster black hole” Sagittarius A* – (Image: NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, ILLINOIS).
These mysterious radio structures were discovered thanks to MeerKAT, a network of 64 interconnected radio antennas located in South Africa, according to a publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
They are quite similar to energy filaments previously observed in the Milky Way galaxy (which contains Earth), but they appear to be spewing out—or being pulled into—one side of the Sagittarius A* black hole.
Sagittarius A* is what scientists refer to as a “monster black hole,” the largest type of supermassive black hole, and is known as the “heart” of the Milky Way galaxy.
“It seems this is the result of material interaction with nearby objects,” Professor Yusef-Zadeh commented.
More figuratively, these “cosmic serpents” may represent “unhealed scars” of the region surrounding the “monster black hole,” rare remnants of a black hole eruption that occurred just 6 million years ago.
Previously, it was believed that the monster Sagittarius A* was an inactive black hole. However, over the past few years, it has occasionally sent us strange signals. This is one of the pieces of evidence suggesting that the “monster” may still be awake at times.
This also clearly indicates that there is much unexplained activity lurking in the seemingly empty and harsh space at the center of the galaxy, which the research team hopes to continue exploring through new radio observations.
