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Galactic Center

All articles tagged with #galactic center

ALMA maps the Milky Way’s chaotic center in unprecedented detail
space2 days ago

ALMA maps the Milky Way’s chaotic center in unprecedented detail

Scientists using the ALMA telescope have produced the largest, most detailed image of the Milky Way’s chaotic center—the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ)—covering about 650 light-years. The mosaic reveals massive streams of turbulent gas, fast-moving stars, and rare structures like the Millimeter Ultra-Broad Line Object (MUBLO), offering new insights into how extreme galactic centers form stars and resemble early-universe environments. The ACES survey, involving ~160 scientists across 70 institutions, aims to develop a 3D CMZ map to unravel how matter flows and shapes star birth near Sagittarius A*.

Milky Way’s Core May Hide an Ultra-Magnetized Pulsar
astronomy6 days ago

Milky Way’s Core May Hide an Ultra-Magnetized Pulsar

Scientists suspect a rapidly spinning, highly magnetic neutron star (a pulsar) sits near the Milky Way’s center. A Breakthrough Listen radio survey with the Green Bank Telescope (2021–2023) found a single pulsar candidate, BLPSR, around 122 rotations per second. If confirmed, such a pulsar orbiting Sagittarius A* could serve as a precise cosmic clock to test general relativity in the extreme gravity near the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, though the Galactic Center is notoriously hard to survey. Future facilities like ngVLA and SKA could help determine how many pulsars truly populate the core.

Could Dark Matter Rule the Milky Way's Core?
astronomy18 days ago

Could Dark Matter Rule the Milky Way's Core?

New research suggests the Milky Way’s central mass, traditionally attributed to the black hole Sagittarius A*, could instead be a dense fermionic dark matter core. The observed orbits of stars like S2 and Gaia rotation curves fit both a black hole and this dark-matter model, meaning current data cannot distinguish them. If the dark matter interpretation holds, it would imply a continuous dark-matter structure linking the galactic center to the halo, reshaping our view of the Milky Way’s mass distribution. Future observations, including higher-resolution EHT data and longer-term stellar monitoring, could resolve the true nature of Sgr A*.

Dark Matter Core Emerges as Challenger to the Galactic Center’s Black Hole
space-and-spaceflight22 days ago

Dark Matter Core Emerges as Challenger to the Galactic Center’s Black Hole

Simulations show a dense dark matter core at the Milky Way’s center could mimic Sagittarius A*’s gravity, matching observed orbital data as well as a black hole and aligning with Gaia DR3, but the model isn’t decisively better yet; next-gen instruments will test whether dark matter could truly dominate the Galactic Center.