Don’t Panic, But a Black Hole Is Changing the Color of Stars in Our Galaxy

A black hole is changing the color of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and people are wondering what’s going on. A discovery in Astrophysical Journal from November 12th has Polish Academy of Sciences’ Michal Zajacek noting the phenomena. A supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A sits near the middle of the galaxy. That spot had been pumping out gas that literally siphoned off the outer layers of various stars in the Milky Way. Now, that may sound like a five-alarm problem, but there’s nothing to be worried about right now. To hear Zajacek tell it, the two large bubbles of gamma-ray gas are not traveling much further than the immediate area. In fact, it’s being argued at the moment that scientists are now more easily able to form a hypothesis about when the black hole formed. In speaking to Science News, the astrophysicist talked about how the red giants were prime targets.

“The jet preferentially acts on large red giants,” he says. “They can be effectively ablated by the jet.”

Their reporting goes on to say that the size and shape of these stars make them very susceptible to the gamma-ray gasses. Other red giants can grow to as much as 100 times the size of our Sun. At that size, taking away the red outer layer would put them in immediate danger. When passing through these gasses, the stars burn blue instead of red, and that accounts for the color change.

Maybe, one day, explorers from our planet may be able to go and investigate these kinds of movements. Other contemporaries in the scientific community have argued that there must be more to this situation than simple gas exposure. Only time will tell.

In other space news, the United States recently unveiled it’s moniker for Space Force. They’ll be known as Guardians, and the newest branch of the military described it on Twitter. “Today, after a yearlong process that produced hundreds of submissions and research involving space professionals and members of the general public, we can finally share with you the name by which we will be known: Guardians.”

Do you think we’ll have galaxy-wide travel within the next 100 years? Let us know down in the comments!

Photo: Tobias Roetsch/Future Publishing via Getty Images