a NASA He released a new image detailing the “violent energy” at the center of the Milky Way, something unprecedented and created after two decades of research.
The impressive panorama was assembled using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.
The images also documented an X-ray wire known as G0.17-0.41, which the researchers say indicates a mechanism that could control energy flow and even the evolution of The galaxy.
“A galaxy is like an ecosystem.” Astronomer Daniel Wang, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, explained in a statement, “We know that galactic centers are the workplace and play a major role in its evolution.”
Our galaxy is difficult to study because it is shielded by a haze of gas and dust. But researchers have managed to penetrate this haze using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which sees X-rays instead of visible light.
Research published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyThe clearest picture yet of the X-ray emissions from the region near the black hole in the center of the galaxy.
The researchers were particularly interested in the G0.17-0.41 X-ray wire, which, according to Wang, “reveals a new phenomenon.”
“This is the evidence [da existência] For a continuous reconnection event of the magnetic field. The wire, according to Wang, is most likely “just the tip of a reconnection iceberg.”
Magnetic field reconnection events occur when opposing magnetic fields are forced to converge and combine, expelling a lot of energy. These events produce auroras and are responsible for phenomena such as solar flares.
“It’s a violent process,” said Wang.
Scientists now believe that magnetic reconnection also occurs in interstellar space and at the outer boundaries of expanding columns emanating from the center of our galaxy.
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