A recent study challenges the accuracy of the iconic first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Released in 2022, this image was the result of extensive work by the international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration and offered a rare glimpse of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the core of the Milky Way.
The famous image depicts a glowing, doughnut-shaped ring with a dark center. The central dark area represents the black hole, while the surrounding orange ring indicates intensely heated gas influenced by the black hole’s powerful gravitational forces.
However, new research led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan suggests this image may not fully capture the true structure. According to the study, the disk of material surrounding the black hole could actually be more elongated than depicted.
This new perspective contrasts with the extensive research that validated the original image. Researchers involved in the new study propose that errors in data analysis could have led to inaccuracies. They revisited the initial data collected in 2017 to investigate further.
“Our image is slightly elongated in the east-west direction, and the eastern half is brighter than the western half,” said Miyoshi Makoto from NAOJ.
“We think this appearance means the accretion disk surrounding the black hole is rotating at about 60 percent of the speed of light.
“Why, then, did the ring-like image emerge? Well, no telescope can capture an astronomical image perfectly.
“We hypothesize that the ring image resulted from errors during EHT’s imaging analysis and that part of it was an artifact, rather than the actual astronomical structure.”
The full findings are detailed in the paper titled “An independent hybrid imaging of Sgr A* from the data in EHT 2017 observations,” published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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