Zooming into Sagittarius A*

ESO’s exquisitely sensitive GRAVITY instrument has added further evidence to the long-standing assumption that a supermassive black hole lurks in the centre of the Milky Way. New observations show clumps of gas swirling around at about 30% of the speed of light on a circular orbit just outside a four million solar mass black hole — the first time material has been observed orbiting close to the point of no return, and the most detailed observations yet of material orbiting this close to a black hole.

This video starts with a wide view of the Milky Way and then zooms into a visualization of data from simulations of orbital motions of gas swirling around at about 30% of the speed of light on a circular orbit around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*.

Credit:

ESO/Gravity Consortium/L. Calçada/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), Music: Johan B. Monell

About the Video

Id:eso1835c
Release date:31 October 2018, 10:00
Related releases:eso1835
Duration:01 m 34 s
Frame rate:30 fps

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