Scientists Find Evidence of Cosmic Wind from Milky Way's Black Hole

Scientists have discovered evidence of a massive wind flowing from Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, potentially solving a puzzle that has confounded astronomers for over five decades. Sgr A*, with a mass roughly four million times that of the Sun, was expected to expel matter through winds or jets like other black holes, yet prior observations found only signs of eruptions from more than 20,000 years ago.

After analysing five years of observations, researchers Mark Gorski and Lena Murchikova from Northwestern University identified what appears to be evidence of the missing wind. Their findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 4, revealed a large cone-shaped cavity lacking cold gas around Sgr A*—a feature that could only have been created by hot gaseous wind emerging from the black hole.