Like most galaxies, our galaxy is also a host to a supermassive black hole at its centre, called Saggitarius A*. Scientists at NASA suggest there could be as many as 10 million to a billion black holes in our Milky Way alone, which would make it evident on how hard it really is to spot these celestial beasts. The only reason we spotted the one at the centre on our galaxy is due to the fact that it is mildly active again - consuming matter – and is 4 million times the mass of our sun. With additional observational studies of star orbits around this supermassive black hole, further deductions from scientists also indicate that there could be another black hole nearby, 100,000 times the mass of our sun. Soon, both the supermassive black holes could merge to create an even larger supermassive black hole and send significant gravitational waves throughout.
What does this mean for the future of our galaxy and Solar System? Well for starters, its impossible for supermassive black holes based in galactic centres to actually ‘eat’ their galaxies slowly because their gravitational reach is just not enough, and our solar system is far off the reach of our black hole. What we still don’t know is if we have dormant black holes around us, since these simply lurk in the darkness, waiting for the matter to fall into them.
Secondly, the way black holes come into existence is due to supernovas, which is the explosion of a star. Our sun, however, is not big enough to explode. Instead, in a couple of million years, after it is done converting hydrogen into helium, it will expand into a massive red star, possibly devouring the Earth, and then its end-stage would be a dense stellar remnant termed as a white dwarf.
What still mystifies explorers is if the black holes came first and formed these enormous galaxies, or if the galaxies gave birth to the supermassive black holes in the centre of them - much like the chicken-and-egg problem.
Writer: Ariya Gupta
23/06/2020
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