Supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. Supermassive black hole in the quasar OJ 287

More recently, science has become reliably aware of what a black hole is. But as soon as scientists understood this phenomenon of the Universe, a new, much more complicated and confused one: a supermassive black hole, which you can not call a black one, but rather a dazzling white one. Why? And because it is this definition that gave the center of each galaxy that glows and shines. But it costs to get there, and besides blackness, nothing remains. What kind of puzzle is this?

Memo about black holes

It is for certain known that a simple black hole is once a shining star. At a certain stage of its existence, its gravitational forces began to increase unreasonably, while the radius remained the same. If before the star "bursting", and it grew, now the forces concentrated in its core began to attract all the other components to itself. Its edges "fall" on the center, forming an incredible force collapse, which becomes a black hole. Such "former stars" no longer shine, but are absolutely outwardly invisible objects of the universe. But they are very noticeable, since they absorb literally everything that falls into their gravitational radius. It is not known what lies behind such a horizon of events. Based on the facts, any body such a huge gravity will literally crush. However, recently not only science fiction writers, but also scientists adhere to the idea that it may be peculiar space tunnels for long-distance travel.

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, existing 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 this collapse is too compressed gas clouds, the gas in which is extremely low, 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 in 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, causes all its participants to be in a constant and fairly fast movement. Thus, the gravitational forces that could be concentrated exclusively in the quasar are, as it were, scattered, and increase from the edge to the core evenly. It is not hard to guess that things in the elliptical or, say, irregular galaxies, are in the opposite way. On the "outskirts" the space is extremely thin, the planets and stars practically do not move. But in the very quasar life literally beats the key.

Parameters of the quasar of the Milky Way

Using the method of radiointerferometry, the researchers were able to calculate the mass of the supermassive black hole, its radius and gravitational force. As noted above, our quasar is dull, it is difficult to call it superpowerful, but even astronomers did not expect that the true results will be such. So, Sagittarius A * (the so-called core) is equated 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 literally drowns in gas clouds, the matter of which is extremely low. Perhaps, at the present time, the evolution of the supermassive black hole of our galaxy is just beginning, and in billions of years it will become a real giant, which will attract not only planetary systems, but other smaller star clusters.

How small the mass of our quasar would be, most of all scientists were amazed by its radius. Theoretically, such a distance can be overcome in a few years on one of the modern spacecraft. The dimensions of the supermassive black hole slightly exceed the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, namely, 1.2 astronomical units. The gravitational radius of this quasar is 10 times smaller than the main diameter. With such indicators, naturally, matter simply can not be adjusted 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 known map of the cosmos, but also the power that its supermassive black hole has. However, as it turned out, not only young space objects can have "ridiculous" parameters. A lot of quasars, which have incredible power and gravity, surprise with their properties:

• Ordinary air often has a higher density than supermassive black holes.
• Getting on the horizon of events, the body will not experience tidal forces. The point is that the singularity center is deep enough, and in order to reach it, one has to go a long way, not even suspecting that there will be no turning back.

Giants of our Universe

One of the most voluminous and old objects in space is the supermassive black hole in the OJ 287 quasar. This is a whole lacertida located in the constellation of Cancer, which, incidentally, is very poorly visible from Earth. It is based on a double 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 fall into its gravitational radius rotate. A smaller system weighs 100 million solar masses, and has a circulation period of 12 years.

Dangerous neighborhood

Galaxies OJ 287 and the Milky Way have been found to be neighbors - the distance between them is about 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 because of the rapprochement with such a gravitational giant that the motion of planetary systems in our galaxy is constantly accelerating, and the stars are getting hotter and more active.

Supermassive black holes are actually white

At the very beginning of the article, a very delicate question was raised: the color in which the most powerful quasars will appear before us is hard to call black. With the naked eye, even on the most unpretentious photograph of any galaxy, you can see that its center is a huge white dot. Why then do we think that this is a supermassive black hole? The photos taken through telescopes show us a huge cluster of stars that attracts the nucleus. Planets and asteroids that rotate side by side, because of close proximity, reflect, thereby multiplying all the light that is present nearby. Since quasars do not drag all neighboring objects with lightning speed, but only keep them in their gravitational radius, they do not vanish, but start to burn even more, because their temperature is skyrocketing. As for ordinary black holes that exist in open space, their name is fully justified. Dimensions are relatively small, but the force of gravity is colossal. They simply "eat" light, not releasing from their shores a single quantum.

Cinematography and supermassive black hole

Gargantua - this term humanity began to be widely used in relation to black holes after the movie "Interstellar" appeared on the screens. Looking through this picture, it is difficult to understand why this name was chosen and where the connection is. But in the original scenario, they planned to create three black holes, two of which would be named Gargantua and Pantagruel, taken from the satirical novel by Francois Rabelais. After the changes, 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 its appearance was occupied by the scientist Kip Thorn, who was based on the properties of these cosmic bodies.

How did we know about the black holes?

If it were not for the theory of relativity that was proposed by Albert Einstein at the beginning of the 20th century, no one would have even paid attention to these mysterious objects. Supermassive black hole would be regarded as an ordinary cluster of stars in the center of the galaxy, and ordinary, small, would at all remain unnoticed. But today, thanks to theoretical calculations and observations, which confirm their correctness, we can observe such a phenomenon as the curvature of space-time. Modern scientists say that finding a "rabbit hole" is not so difficult. Around such an object, matter behaves unnaturally, it not only contracts, but sometimes it glows. Around the black point a bright halo is formed, which is visible through the telescope. In many respects, the nature of black holes helps us to comprehend the history of the formation of the universe. In their center there is a singularity point, similar to the one from which the entire world around us has developed.

It is for sure not known what can happen to a person who will cross the horizon of events. Will he squash his gravity, or will he be in a completely different place? The only thing that can be said with complete certainty is that gargantua slows down the time, and at some point the clock hand stops completely and irrevocably.