Astronomers set to produce images of the dense blob at the centre of our galaxy

New Scientist Magazine have featured an article on their front page – Holey Moley – that reveals the search for the immensely dense object at the centre of our galaxy (New Scientist, July, 2017).

The dense, invisible object at the centre of our galaxy is thought to be a supermassive black hole (active galactic nucleus), but could it be something more exotic? It has been posited that instead of a supermassive black hole, could there be the presence of a transparent Boson Star? (New Scientist, July, 2017)

Since the discovery of the first evidence of a black hole in 1964, when huge emissions of x-rays were discovered in constellation Cygnus, fitting with the models of superheated gas plunging into the black holes event horizon, they have been discovered with regularity. So much so that evidence of black holes has become ten a penny (New Scientist, July, 2017).

However, scientists are still flummoxed as to what happens beyond the event horizon of a black hole. The extreme density of a black hole and its ability to gorge its way through vast quantities of matter like there’s no tomorrow, leaves astrophysicists stumped. What happens inside this galactic garbage disposal unit? The notion that something can have zero volume, but infinite mass, is inconceivable for our primitive humanoid brains. This area of science is where general relativity meets quantum theory and the two sets of rules mismatch irreconcilably (New Scientist, July, 2015).

In this sense the infinite density that has been proposed to occur at the centre of a black hole, or its singularity, needs some explanation. Consequently the search for sub-atomic particles that could explain these discrepancies are being conducted by labs such as CERN, T2K and Fermilab.

The discovery of the Higgs Boson particle, in 2012 reopened the debate about how black holes work and other potential objects that would have huge masses. One proposition might be the existence of a Boson Star which may also lie at the centre of our galaxy(Sagittarius A*), instead of a supermassive black hole (New Scientist, July, 2017).

This theoretical star was first brought into being by theorist, David Kaup, in the 1960s, who proposed that a Boson Star could exist if it were to be made from spin-zero Bosons. However, those particles were only theoretical until the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012. Although the discovery of the Higgs particle reopened the possibility of the Boson Star, the Higgs is still way too heavy. With a weight 250000 times the mass of an electron the Higgs doesn’t meet the criteria. However, an axion, which is currently a hypothetical particle, could form a Boson Star. If scientists could prove the existence of a Boson Star it would explain away some of the dark matter in the universe (New Scientist, July, 2017).

There is still debate about what matter would look like once it was absorbed by the Boson Star. Luciano Rezolla, a theorist from the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, has said that Boson stars would still consume matter, like a black hole, but due to the Boson Star’s transparency, it would be visible at its centre.

The Event Horizon telescope and ALMA radio telescopes will team up to capture the image of whatever lies in the heart of our galaxy. However, Heino Falcke from the Radbound University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, advised that expectant onlookers should not get over excited as the image might not be vivid.

It’s not going to be a beautiful sharp image. It’s likely to be an ugly peanut (New Scientist, July, 2017).

As the heart of our galaxy is covered with gas and dust it might be some time before we know what actually occupies its centre. However, interesting times are ahead if exotic Boson Stars can be verified as actualities.