Astronomers suggest that there may be a huge accumulation of dark matter in the center of our galaxy, which creates similar gravitational effects, not a supermassive black hole.
According to Elchi.az, the new research was published in the journal “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society”.
The research questions the general interpretation of the “Sagittarius A*” object as a black hole. Scientists offer an alternative: a compact core made of fermionic dark matter, surrounded by a sparser halo.
This model explains both the chaotic orbits of S-class stars near the center and the behavior of gas and stars at the edges of the galaxy obtained by the “GAIA DR3” mission. The model is also consistent with the famous “shadow” image of “Sagittarius A*” obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope.
“We are not simply replacing the black hole with a dark object; we assume that the supermassive central object and the dark matter halo of the galaxy are two manifestations of the same continuous substance,” said Dr. Carlos Argüelles, co-author of the study.
Future observations with the “GRAVITY” interferometer at the “Very Large Telescope” in Chile and the search for photon rings that should exist in real black holes may provide decisive evidence in favor of one of these theories.