Supermassive Black Hole the Most Powerful Source of Radiation in Our Galaxy

[Buster's Uncle]

This Supermassive Black Hole Is the Most Powerful Source of Radiation in Our Galaxy
Popular Mechanics
By John Wenz  1 hour ago



Sagittarius A shoots out cosmic rays at a staggering rate.



At the center of the Milky Way galaxy lies a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A. While it already has enough energy to hold our galaxy together, it may be hiding another secret: observations indicate that it's the largest source of cosmic radiation in the galaxy.

Researchers at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa made the observation from the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) array, a group of five telescopes in Namibia specifically designed to hunt for cosmic rays.

Plenty of supernova remnants pummel out cosmic rays. But observations of gamma rays in the inner 30 light years of our galactic center revealed a source: something was spitting out cosmic rays at the speed of light, which were then colliding with cloudy nebula and discharging into gamma rays. Whatever was doing it is producing 1 peta-electron volt of power, or 1,000,000,000,000,000 electron volts. For comparison, the most powerful sources known before had a maximum output of 1 tera-electron volt, or 1,000,000,000,000 electron volts.

The research, published in Nature, could also point the way toward an ultimate origin for a majority galactic cosmic rays, the powerful bursts that travel throughout the entire galaxy rather than those produced by "local" stars, pulsars, and small black holes. But if Sagittarius A isn't the culprit, it means something very, very strange is going on at the center of our galaxy.


http://news.yahoo.com/supermassive-black-hole-most-powerful-141001548.html