Researchers have suspected the black hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), at the center of the Milky Way emits a jet of high energy particles; but this was only a speculation until now.
Past research on the jet delivered mixed conclusions, a NASA news release reported.
"For decades astronomers have looked for a jet associated with the Milky Way's black hole. Our new observations make the strongest case yet for such a jet," Zhiyuan Li of Nanjing University in China, lead author of a study appearing in an upcoming edition of The Astrophysical Journal, said.
The supermassive black hole resides 26,000 light-years from Earth and is about four-million times more massive than our Sun.
The particle-rich jets are often present in both young stars and black holes, they are believed to be responsible for transporting energy away from the objects and regulating the formation of newborn stars.
"We were very eager to find a jet from Sgr A* because it tells us the direction of the black hole's spin axis. This gives us important clues about the growth history of the black hole," Mark Morris of the University of California at Los Angeles, a co-author of the study said.
The researchers concluded the spin axis of Sgr A* points parallel to the spin axis of the Milky Way; the finding suggests gas and dust have been slowly pouring into the central black hole for billions of years.
The team believes the jet is running into a nearby gas cloud, the phenomenon produced X-rays that were picked up by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. The jet also creates a "shock front" (similar to a sonic boom) when it hits the dust.
The team believes the jets resemble similar objects in other galaxies. The black hole is believed to have significantly slowed down over the past several-hundred years.
"We know this giant black hole has been much more active at consuming material in the past. When it stirs again, the jet may brighten dramatically," co-author Frederick K. Baganoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said.
