The belief that there is a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way (kudos to whoever knows why that's the name of our galaxy) has been fueled by lots of theoretical conjecture and indirect evidence. Of course, it's consistent with the nature of black holes not to produce any 'direct' evidence for their existence, so you could take it either way...During the last 16 years, however, a group of astronomers has been mapping the movement of about 30 stars at the center of the galaxy. Originally, it seemed like the movement was purely chaotic (a mystery in itself), but the data eventually suggested a series of orbital patterns around an unobservable object. We still can't see "it," but that's a black hole!
Check out this great documentary, narrated by Sam Neill, to learn more about black holes and the ways they can be detected.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment