For decades, astronomers have watched a mysterious blob named X7 drift around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, wondering where it came from.
For decades, astronomers have watched a mysterious blob named X7 drift around the supermassiveBy analyzing 20 years' worth of observations, a team of scientists led by University of California Los Angeles astrophysicist Anna Ciurlo has uncovered dramatic transformation in the X7's shape, stretching to almost twice its initial length.
If a debris cloud is indeed what the object is, its discovery sheds light on some of the fascinating dynamics in the galactic center, such as the frequency of stellar collisions, and the effects of extreme gravity. In just a few short years, the cloud of dust and gas will become more and more spaghettified, and fall into the black hole Sagittarius A* .
"It's exciting to see significant changes of X7's shape and dynamics in such great detail over a relatively short time scale as the gravitational forces of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way influences this object,"X7 shares some similarities with other mystery blobs orbiting the galactic center, known as G objects.
."In this process, the merged star is hidden inside a shell of dust and gas, which might fit the description of the G objects. And the ejected gas perhaps produced X7-like objects."
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