The Herschel telescope is surprisingly hot gas in the ... - 20minutos.es

class=”text”> discover surprisingly hot molecular gas orbiting or falling into the black hole of our galaxy. (ESA)

Herschel of the ESA has made detailed observations of molecular gas surprisingly hot that may be orbiting or falling toward the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way .

Our local black hole is located in a region known as Sagittarius A , after a nearby radio source. It has a mass about four million times that of our Sun and lies about 26,000 light-years from Earth.

class=”imp”> Herschel Telescope to study the turbulent inner region of our galaxy in great detail Even at that distance is a few hundred times closer to us than any other galaxy with a black hole in the active , so it is an ideal natural laboratory for studying the environment around these enigmatic objects.

Large amounts of dust are in the plane of the Milky Way from here to the center, which obscure our view in visible wavelengths. However, at wavelengths Far Infrared , you can see through the dust, giving scientists the opportunity Herschel study the turbulent inner region of our galaxy in great detail .

Herschel detected

variety of simple molecules in the heart of the Milky Way , including carbon monoxide, water vapor and hydrogen cyanide. By analyzing the signing of these molecules, astronomers have been able to test some of the fundamental properties of the interstellar gas surrounding the black hole.

“ Herschel resolved far-infrared emission in just 1 light-year black hole , so that it is possible for the first time in these separate wavelength emission due to the central cavity surrounding the dense molecular disk, “says Javier Goicoechea Astrobiology Center, Spain, lead author of the paper reporting the results.

The biggest surprise

was the molecular gas heat in the innermost central region of the galaxy . At least, some of them are around 1000 ° C, much hotter than typical interstellar clouds, which are usually only a few tens of degrees above -273 ° C absolute zero.

class=”imp”> molecular gas temperature is much warmer than typical interstellar clouds Although most of the warming is due to ultraviolet radiation intense flows from a group of massive stars who live very near the galactic center, not enough to explain the high temperatures.

addition to stellar radiation, to Dr. Goicoechea emisión hypothesizes that strong shocks in highly magnetized gas in the region can be a major contributor to the high temperatures. These shocks can be generated in collisions between gas clouds, or the material flowing at high velocity of the stars and protostars .

“The observations are also consistent with streamers of hot gas hurtling toward the area , falling towards the center of the galaxy,” says Goicoechea.