The Milky Way's Black Hole is Nearly Rotating at Maximum Speed

Illustration of black holes in bima magic galaxies (photo: dock. NASA Hubble)

JAKARTA - All objects in the universe must rotate, both asteroids and planets. The same thing also happens to black holes, the places with the strongest gravity in space.

Researchers believe that all rotations have a maximum rate, including black holes. To find out the current rotation speed of the black hole, a number of researchers started doing calculations.

Essentially, the rotation of a black hole is not determined by the rotation of its physical mass, according to a Universetoday quote. This rotation depends on the rotation of time around it.

Referring to Einstein's equations of general relativity, the spin of a black hole is measured by the magnitude a. This point should be between zero and one. These two numbers are the basis for calculations for researchers.

If the black hole does not rotate, then a is equal to zero. However, if the rotation is at its maximum, then a is equal to one. To support the calculations, the research team also used radio and X-ray observations.

This radio is used to observe the light spectrum from the material around the black hole which is distorted or continues to rotate until the object changes shape from its original appearance.

As a result of these observations, the researchers found that the black hole value was in the range of 0.86 to 0.96. This means that the black hole is spinning much faster than before.

With this number, researchers prove that the black hole is rotating at a fairly high speed. This speed will continue to increase until it reaches maximum speed.

Unfortunately, researchers cannot yet know exactly when this black hole will reach maximum speed. To know the time, regular observations and calculations are needed.