Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s Lazy Giant, Lands a First‑Ever Photo
WASHINGTON – On Thursday (May 12), a team of scientists finally lifted the veil on the “gentle giant” that sits at the heart of our galaxy, producing the first image of Sagittarius A*, a super‑massive black hole that’s currently on a bit of a diet.
The Second Black Hole Ever Snap‑Shotted
This amazing image marks the second time humanity has captured a direct view of a black hole, thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) international network that dazzled the world in 2019 with a photo of an unrelated galaxy’s central monster.
Seeing the “Red, Yellow, and White” Ring
University of Arizona astronomer Feryal Özel touted the picture as “the first direct image of the gentle giant in the centre of our galaxy.” The photo displays a glowing ring — a swirl of red, yellow, and white — encircling a darker core.
What’s the Deal with Sagittarius A*?
- Mass: about four million times that of the Sun.
- Location: roughly 26,000 light‑years away (or 5.9 trillion miles).
- Current appetite: surprisingly picky; it’s eating a lot less matter than we’d expect.
Harvard‑Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astrophysicist Michael Johnson described it as “ravenous but inefficient.” He joked that if the black hole were a person, it would snack on just one grain of rice every million years. Despite its massive bulk, Sagittarius A* churns out only a few hundred times the Sun’s energy.
Why Imaging a Black Hole Is Such a Challenge
A black hole is an object of astronomical density, with gravity so intense that nothing — not even light — can escape once it crosses its event horizon. This makes it virtually invisible, requiring clever techniques to glimpse its existence.
The EHT’s Global Network
By orchestrating a worldwide array of radio telescopes, the EHT could observe the faint radio signals around the black hole, capturing a high‑speed ring of light from scorching, disrupted matter near the event horizon. The darker spot inside the ring represents the black hole’s “shadow” or silhouette.
Dr. Özel on the Swirling Chaos
“It’s like a source that burbled and gurgled as we looked at it,” Özel said. “We love our black hole!”
A Quick Primer on the Milky Way
Our galaxy is a sprawling spiral, with at least 100 billion stars. From an overhead or under‑view, it looks like a spinning pinwheel. The Sun orbits one of its arms, while Sagittarius A* sits snugly at the center, keeping the cosmic engine humming.
‘Just trickling it’
<img alt="" data-caption="Astrophysicist Shepherd Doeleman shows the first image of a black hole during the press conference in Washington, US, on April 10, 2019.
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Unraveling the Marvels of Two Galactic Titans
What the Giants Are Really Doing
Scientists are trying to get to the bottom of how supermassive black holes pop up early in a galaxy’s life and then grow into the titans we see today. The key insight? They’re not always in the business of eating—sometimes they go from being hungry to, well, quite the opposite.
Why M87 and Sagittarius A* Are Such a Big Talk
Back in 2019, the worldwide community celebrated when the Event Horizon Telescope captured a picture of the black hole dead center of Messier 87. That beast lives roughly 54 million light‑years away, and its mass is a whopping 6.5 billion suns—basically the heavy‑metal band version of a black hole.
Zeroing in on our close‑by cousin, Sagittarius A*, is a far more challenging gig. Although it sits in the Milky Way’s own backyard, its size is only about 17 solar diameters. That’s small enough that it would nestle inside Mercury’s orbit—think of it like fitting a ballpoint pen inside a shoebox.
In contrast, M87’s span would swallow the entire Solar System—like a galactic boulder that eats planets with an appetite.
Why the Images Are Still a Little Messy
- Speed of evolution. Sgr A* is smaller, so everything happens 1,000 times quicker—fast‑forward gray‑scale.
- “Everything around is a distraction.” The Milky Way’s dusty disk acts like a blurry filter, spoiling the neatness.
- Technical limits. Both images pushed telescopes to their limits. The team joked that the equipment was “crying tears of data.”
Future Adventures
Vincent Fish from MIT Haystack Observatory hopes to fix the low‑res picture and, eventually, produce a full‑blown time‑lapse of M87. Imagine a cosmic “Rogue One”—but instead of starships it’s a pulsating event horizon.
Major Conference Buzz
Thursday’s global announcement rolled out from seven live conferences, with the chat booming between Rome, Shanghai, and Oslo. The EHT Project Director, Huib Jan van Langevelde, grinned and said the mystery was finally “unmasked.”
Katie Bouman, a Caltech computer whiz, chided the crowd: “It’s just super‑exciting! Watching the Milky Way’s central black hole is like finally seeing your own pet dragon in real life.”
Bottom line?
We’re getting close to understanding how the universe’s biggest and smallest black holes grow, with each discovery serving up a cosmic story that keeps scientists—and us—on the edge of our seats.
