قال راينهارد جينزل ، مدير معهد ماكس بلانك للفيزياء خارج كوكب الأرض والمشترك في الحصول على جائزة نوبل في الفيزياء لعام 2020: “نحن ممتنون جدًا لمرصد الجوزاء ، الذي أعطتنا أداة GNIRS الخاصة به المعلومات الهامة التي نحتاجها”. “يُظهر هذا البحث التعاون العالمي في أفضل حالاته.”
يحتوي مركز المجرة التابع لمجرة درب التبانة ، الذي يقع على بعد حوالي 27000 سنة ضوئية من الشمس ، على مصدر الراديو المضغوط Sgr A * الذي حدده علماء الفلك على أنه ثقب أسود فائق الكتلة يبلغ 4.3 مليون مرة كتلة الشمس. على الرغم من عقود من الملاحظات المضنية – وتم منح جائزة نوبل لاكتشاف هوية Sgr A *[3] – È stato difficile provare definitivamente che la maggior parte di questa massa appartiene solo al buco nero supermassiccio e non include anche un’enorme quantità di materia come le stelle, che sono più piccole buchi nerio polvere e gas interstellari, o materia oscura.
“Con il Premio Nobel per la Fisica 2020 assegnato a conferma che Sgr A* è davvero un buco nero, ora vogliamo andare avanti. Vorremmo capire se c’è qualcos’altro nascosto al centro della Via Lattea, e se in generale la relatività è davvero la teoria corretta “Il modo più diretto per rispondere a questa domanda è seguire da vicino le orbite delle stelle che passano vicino a Sgr A*”, ha spiegato Stefan Gelsen, uno degli astronomi coinvolti in questo lavoro.
La teoria della relatività generale di Einstein prevede che le orbite delle stelle attorno a un oggetto compatto e supermassiccio siano leggermente diverse da quelle previste dalla fisica newtoniana classica. In particolare, la relatività generale prevede che le orbite delle stelle disegneranno un’elegante rosetta, un effetto noto come Schwarzschild proattivo. Per vedere effettivamente le stelle che seguivano questa rosa, il team ha tracciato la posizione e la velocità di quattro stelle nelle immediate vicinanze di Sgr A* – chiamate S2, S29, S38 e S55. Le osservazioni del team su quanto sono andate queste stelle hanno permesso di dedurre la distribuzione di massa all’interno di Sgr A*. Hanno scoperto che qualsiasi massa che si estende all’interno dell’orbita di S2 contribuisce al massimo allo 0,1% della massa del buco nero supermassiccio.
sequenza animata per[{” attribute=””>ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) images of stars around the Milky Way’s central black hole. This animation shows the orbits of the stars S29 and S55 as they move close to Sagittarius A* (center), the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. As we follow the stars along in their orbits, we see real images of the region obtained with the GRAVITY instrument on the VLTI in March, May, June and July 2021. In addition to S29 and S55, the images also show two fainter stars, S62 and S300. S300 was detected for the first time in new VLTI observations reported by ESO.
Measuring the minute variations in the orbits of distant stars around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole is incredibly challenging. To make further discoveries, astronomers will have to push the boundaries not only of science but also of engineering. Upcoming extremely large telescopes (ELTs) such as the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope (both part of the US-ELT Program) will allow astronomers to measure even fainter stars with even greater precision.
“We will improve our sensitivity even further in future, allowing us to track even fainter objects,” concluded Gillessen. “We hope to detect more than we see now, giving us a unique and unambiguous way to measure the rotation of the black hole.”
Ingrandisci il cuore della Via Lattea per vedere le stelle osservate dal Very Large Telescope dell’European Southern Observatory (ultima osservazione del 2019). Lo zoom in avanti rivela ulteriormente le stelle più vicine al buco nero, osservate utilizzando lo strumento GRAVITY sull’interferometro del VLT (Very Large Telescope) dell’ESO a metà del 2021.
“Gli osservatori Gemini continuano a fornire nuove informazioni sulla natura della nostra galassia e sul buco nero supermassiccio al suo centro”, ha affermato Martin Steele, responsabile del programma Gemini presso la National Science Foundation. “L’ulteriore sviluppo di strumenti nel prossimo decennio destinati a un uso diffuso manterrà la leadership di NOIRLab nella caratterizzazione dell’universo che ci circonda”.
Per ulteriori informazioni su questa ricerca, vedere Guarda le stelle correre intorno al buco nero supermassiccio della Via Lattea.
Appunti
- Sagittario A* è pronunciato “Stella del Sagittario”.
- Il VLT dell’ESO è costituito da quattro telescopi a sito singolo con un diametro di 8,2 metri che possono raccogliere la luce attraverso una rete di specchi e tunnel sotterranei utilizzando una tecnica nota come interferometria, per formare il VLTI. GRAVITY utilizza questa tecnologia per misurare la posizione degli oggetti del cielo notturno in base all’altitudine[{” attribute=””>accuracy — equivalent to picking out a quarter-dollar coin on the surface of the Moon.
- The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in part to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.”
This research is presented in the paper “The mass distribution in the Galactic Centre from interferometric astrometry of multiple stellar orbits” which is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. A companion paper “Deep Images of the Galactic Center with GRAVITY” has also been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
References:
“Mass distribution in the Galactic Center based on interferometric astrometry of multiple stellar orbits” by GRAVITY Collaboration: R. Abuter, N. Aimar, A. Amorim, J. Ball, M. Bauböck, J. P. Berger, H. Bonnet, G. Bourdarot, W. Brandner, V. Cardoso, Y. Clénet, Y. Dallilar, R. Davies, P. T. de Zeeuw, J. Dexter, A. Drescher, F. Eisenhauer, N. M. Förster Schreiber, A. Foschi, P. Garcia, F. Gao, E. Gendron, R. Genzel, S. Gillessen, M. Habibi, X. Haubois, G. Heißel,??, T. Henning, S. Hippler, M. Horrobin, L. Jochum, L. Jocou, A. Kaufer, P. Kervella, S. Lacour, V. Lapeyrère, J.-B. Le Bouquin, P. Léna, D. Lutz, T. Ott, T. Paumard, K. Perraut, G. Perrin, O. Pfuhl, S. Rabien, J. Shangguan, T. Shimizu, S. Scheithauer, J. Stadler, A.W. Stephens, O. Straub, C. Straubmeier, E. Sturm, L. J. Tacconi, K. R. W. Tristram, F. Vincent, S. von Fellenberg, F. Widmann, E. Wieprecht, E. Wiezorrek, J. Woillez, S. Yazici and A. Young, 19 January 2022, Astronomy & Astrophysics.
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142465
“Deep images of the Galactic center with GRAVITY” by GRAVITY Collaboration: R. Abuter, N. Aimar, A. Amorim, P. Arras, M. Bauböck, J. P. Berger, H. Bonnet, W. Brandner, G. Bourdarot, V. Cardoso, Y. Clénet, R. Davies, P. T. de Zeeuw, J. Dexter, Y. Dallilar, A. Drescher, F. Eisenhauer, T. Enßlin, N. M. Förster Schreiber, P. Garcia, F. Gao, E. Gendron, R. Genzel, S. Gillessen, M. Habibi, X. Haubois, G. Heißel, T. Henning, S. Hippler, M. Horrobin, A. Jiménez-Rosales, L. Jochum, L. Jocou, A. Kaufer, P. Kervella, S. Lacour, V. Lapeyrère, J.-B. Le Bouquin, P. Léna, D. Lutz, F. Mang, M. Nowak, T. Ott, T. Paumard, K. Perraut, G. Perrin, O. Pfuhl, S. Rabien, J. Shangguan, T. Shimizu, S. Scheithauer, J. Stadler, O. Straub, C. Straubmeier, E. Sturm, L. J. Tacconi, K. R. W. Tristram, F. Vincent, S. von Fellenberg, I. Waisberg, F. Widmann, E. Wieprecht, E. Wiezorrek, J. Woillez, S. Yazici, A. Young and G. Zins, 19 January 2022, Astronomy & Astrophysics.
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142459
More information
The team behind this result is composed of The GRAVITY Collaboration, R. Abuter (European Southern Observatory), A. Amorim (Universidade de Lisboa and CENTRA – Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação), M. Bauböck (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and University of Illinois), J. P. Berger (University Grenoble Alpes and European Southern Observatory), H. Bonnet (European Southern Observatory), G. Bourdarot (University Grenoble Alpes and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), V. Cardoso (CENTRA – Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação and CERN), Y. Clénet (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), Y. Dallilar (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), R. Davies (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), P. T. de Zeeuw (Leiden University and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), J. Dexter (University of Colorado, Boulder), A. Drescher (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), A. Eckart (University of Cologne and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy), F. Eisenhauer (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), N. M. Förster Schreiber (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), P. Garcia (Universidade do Porto and CENTRA – Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação), F. Gao (Universität Hamburg and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), E. Gendron (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), R. Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and University of California, Berkeley), S. Gillessen (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), M. Habibi (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), X. Haubois (European Southern Observatory), G. Heißel (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), T. Henning (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), S. Hippler (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), M. Horrobin (University of Cologne), L. Jochum (European Southern Observatory), L. Jocou (University Grenoble Alpes), A. Kaufer (European Southern Observatory), P. Kervella (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), S. Lacour (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), V. Lapeyrère (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), J.-B. Le Bouquin (University Grenoble Alpes), P. Léna (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), D. Lutz (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), T. Ott (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), T. Paumard (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), K. Perraut (University Grenoble Alpes), G. Perrin (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), O. Pfuhl (European Southern Observatory and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), S. Rabien (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), G. Rodríguez-Coira (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), J. Shangguan (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), T. Shimizu (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), S. Scheithauer (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), J. Stadler (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), O. Straub (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), C. Straubmeier (University of Cologne), E. Sturm (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), L. J. Tacconi (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), K. R. W. Tristram (European Southern Observatory), F. Vincent (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris), S. von Fellenberg (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), F. Widmann (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), E. Wieprecht (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), E. Wiezorrek (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), J. Woillez (European Southern Observatory), S. Yazici (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the University of Cologne), and A. Young (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics).