An article published in the journal "The Astrophysical Journal Letters" reports the results of observations of a structure similar to a chimney which functions as a sort of vent from which hot gas coming from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, escapes.
ALMA, as part of the Event Horizon Telescope, is unveiling a new image of our Milky Way's supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, in which strong magnetic fields can be seen…
The most exciting part is that this hints to a jet that would be hidden from our vantage point in our galaxy… but imagine that! We might be like M87, just at a smaller scale!
A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*).
Thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), of which ALMA is a major contributor, the EHT collaboration has been able to describe for the first time how light from the edge of M87's supermassive black hole spirals as it scapes the extraordinary gravitational field by looking at the polarization of its radio emission.
ALMA captured, for the first time, the accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole. Identifying this flow had long been a challenge, due to the small scale of these regions and the complex gas motion near galactic centers. They saw where the foreground molecular gas absorbed the bright light coming from the Active Galaxy Nucleus, and evidence of its movement.
An article published in "The Astrophysical Journal Letters" reports a study indicating that the early universe was much brighter than predicted by simulations based on current cosmological models.
Here is a graphic comparing the sizes of four of the well-known Super Massive Black Holes (SMBHs), in relationship to the size of the solar system
Sgr A*, the SMBH at the center of our galaxy and the SMBH in galaxy M87 have both been imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT); their images are used as background in the graphic below. The image of M87 is also used in the graphic for the Andromeda galaxy and for TON 618, the most massive SMBH observed to date.
NASA states the mass of TON 618 as 60+ billion solar masses, which I think is based on an earlier estimate. Newer estimates put the mass at 40 billion solar masses.
The theoretical limit for SMBHs is stated as 50 billion solar masses.
Under certain unlikely conditions, they can grow to 270 billion solar masses.