At the center of the Milky Way sitsSagittarius A * , a supermassive black hole that weigh 4.6 million time our Sun . It is orb by several stars and a few peculiar objects include the mysterious X7 . It ’s possible X7 is not recollective for this world and could become food for Sagittarius A * within the next 15 years .
Astronomers have been studying the object , a suspected gas cloud , for a recollective sentence and have now shared observation of X7 span two decades . Its changing conformation is an meter reading that it is not on the button solid ; it is being alter by the gravity of the supermassive black mess . Now , they suspect it ’s a dust cloud from a leading collision .
X7 has a mass equivalent to about 50 solid ground and is on an sphere around Sagittarius A * that takes about 170 years to complete . But the team believes that the cloud wo n’t be able to cease its orbit . In 2036 , it will be at its penny-pinching point from the supermassive ignominious hole , and it will in all likelihood be pulled in and finally corkscrew toward it .
“ We anticipate the stiff tidal forces exercise by the galactic disgraceful hole will ultimately tear X7 asunder before it completes even one range , ” say co - source Mark Morris , UCLA prof of physical science and astronomy , said in astatement .
At first , X7 was believed to be a deoxyguanosine monophosphate object . These are peculiar objects at the centre of the galaxy that looks like gas cloud but behave like headliner . But no G object has deepen as much as X7 has .
“ No other object in this region has show such an utmost evolution , ” lead author Anna Ciurlo , also of UCLA , say . “ It started off comet - shaped and mass thought maybe it got that shape from starring wind or super acid of particle from the black hole . But as we followed it for 20 years we see it becoming more elongated . Something must have put this swarm on its special path with its particular preference . ”
But there are few possibleness about where X7 comes from .
“ One possibility is that X7 ’s natural gas and dust were chuck out at the moment when two stars merged , ” Ciurlo explained . “ In this process , the merged hotshot is hidden inside a shell of detritus and flatulency , which might fit the verbal description of the G object . And the eject gasolene perhaps create X7 - like objects . ”
“ This is a very messy physical process : The stars circle each other , get closer , merge , and the new ace is hidden within a swarm of rubble and gas . X7 could be the dust and throttle eject from a merged star that ’s still out there somewhere . ”
Another explanation is that the cloud isassociated with a immature star S50and that the cloud come from it and is responding to the peculiar surroundings around the supermassive black kettle of fish .
The findings are reported inThe Astrophysical Journal .
