Supermassive black hole in our galaxy spinning rapidly, altering space-time around it: Scientists

In a new study, scientists have found that the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, which is located at the centre of our galaxy, has been spinning rapidly as well as altering space-time around it. Space-time is the four-dimensional continuum which describes how we see space while fusing three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time together to represent the space fabric that curves while responding to massive celestial bodies.

The black hole, which is located at a distance of 26,000 light-years from Earth, was observed by a team of physicists with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a telescope which has been designed for detecting the X-ray emissions from hot regions of the universe.

The scientists calculated the rotational speed of Sagittarius A*’s with the help of the outflow method which observes the radio waves and X-ray emissions which is present in the material and gases surrounding black holes, also known as the accretion disk, as per the study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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The researchers stated that the black hole is spinning which is leading to the Lense-Thirring effect, also known as frame dragging. The effect takes place when space-time is dragged by a black hole along with its spin, explained lead study author Ruth Daly, who is also a physics professor at Penn State University and designed the outflow method nearly a decade ago.

How worrisome is the altering of space-time?

After the outflow method's invention, Daly has been working to understand the spin of various black holes and wrote a study which explored nearly 750 supermassive black holes in 2019.

“With this spin, Sagittarius A* will be dramatically altering the shape of space-time in its vicinity. We’re used to thinking and living in a world where all the spatial dimensions are equivalent — the distance to the ceiling and the distance to the wall and the distance to the floor … they all sort of are linear, it’s not like one is totally squished up compared to the others," Daly said, as reported by CNN.

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“But if you have a rapidly rotating black hole, the space-time around it is not symmetric — the spinning black hole is dragging all of the space-time around with it … it squishes down the space-time, and it sort of looks like a football,” she added.

Daly confirmed that there is nothing to worry about the altering of space-time but illuminating this phenomenon can be helpful to astronomers.

“It’s a wonderful tool to understand the role that black holes play in galaxy formation and evolution. The fact that they’re dynamical entities which can be spinning … and then that can impact the galaxy that this is sitting in — it’s very exciting and very interesting," she said.

(With inputs from agencies)