Supermassive Merger: Sgr A* Formed by Black Hole Collision 9 Billion Years Ago

They can be so massive that they resist comprehension, with some of them having billions of times more mass than the Sun.Astrophysicists have studied Sgr A* to learn more about it, including its age. They say it formed about nine billion years ago.

New research published in Nature Astronomy relied on EHT observations to ascertain Sgr A*'s age and origin. It's titled"Black holes grow in two ways. They accrete matter over time, and they merge. Astrophysicists believe that it takes a galaxy merger to form an SMBH, and Sgr A* is no different. It likely formed through a merger, though it also accretes material.

"The Event Horizon Telescope provided direct imaging of the SMBH Sgr A* at the Milky Way's center, indicating it likely spins rapidly with its spin axis significantly misaligned relative to the Galactic plane's angular momentum," the authors write in their paper. Their work shows that a 4:1 mass ratio merger with a highly inclined orbital configuration can explain what EHT observations of Sgr A* show.data, we have discovered that a 4:1 major merger of SMBH with a binary angular momentum inclination angle of 145-180 degrees with respect to the line of sight can successfully replicate the measured spin properties of Sgr A*," the authors explain in their work.

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Massive merger: Study reveals evidence for origin of supermassive black hole at galaxy's centerResearchers have discovered compelling evidence suggesting that the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is likely the result of a past cosmic merger. The study builds on recent observations from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which captured the first direct image of Sgr A* in 2022.
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