Simulation of G objects around a supermassive black hole
Astronomers have named these “monstrous” objects G.
The two original objects, G1 and G2, first came into the view of astronomers nearly two decades ago. This duo has strange orbits and properties. After a long time of observations, the researchers discovered that they were most likely giant clouds of gas, spanning about 100 astronomical units (the distance from the sun to the earth is counted as one astronomical unit). ). The extent of the gas clouds nearly reaches the black hole’s crater.
However, G1 and G2 do not behave like clouds of gas, but more like stars, as physicist and astronomer Andrea Ghez of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) explained in 2020, by page Science Alert June 24th.
Expert Ghez and colleagues have been studying the center of the Milky Way for more than 20 years. Based on this data, a team of astronomers led by UCLA expert Anna Ciurlo discovered four more similar objects, G3, G4, G5 and G6 respectively.
Group of 4 newly identified objects are moving on different orbits than G1 and G2. Together, the G objects have orbits spanning between 170 and 1,600 years, according to the journal report Nature.
To date, it is not clear what they are, and why it is possible to exist in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* without being swallowed by this “monster”.