Right now, a giant object is being pulled apart as the supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A*, drags it closer, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday.
Scientists think the object, dubbed “X7”, is being sucked by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, according to Mashable.
UCLA astronomers said X7 has evolved dramatically in a relatively short time, adding that it doesn’t have much time left because the black hole’s gravitational power is relentless.
“No other object in this region has shown such an extreme evolution,” said Anna Ciurlo, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) assistant researcher and the paper’s lead author. “It started off comet-shaped and people thought maybe it got that shape from stellar winds or jets of particles from the black hole. But as we followed it for 20 years we saw it becoming more elongated. Something must have put this cloud on its particular path with its particular orientation.”
Black holes harbor almost unimaginable gravity due to their extremely concentrated mass (if Earth were crushed into a black hole, it would be under an inch across), and astronomers have now watched X7 changing for two decades as it veers closer to its last years.
X7 has a mass of about 50 Earths and is on an orbital path around Sgr A* that would take 170 years to complete.
Scientsits expect that within the next few decades, X7 will eventually be drawn toward the black hole and will disintegrate.
Although X7’s origin is still the subject of debate, the finding suggests that it arose after two stars collided.