The Milky Way’s black hole may be spinning at top speed

The center of our galaxy can contain an exceptional cosmic rotation top – a black hole that seems to turn almost as quickly as possible.

Michael Janssen at Radboud University in the Netherlands and his colleagues studied the black hole at the center of the milky, Sagittarius A *, using the data collected by a network of observatories known collectively under the name of Télescope Horizon Event (EHT). To cope with the complexity of the data, they turned to artificial intelligence.

First, they used mathematical models well known to simulate about a million black holes – which was itself a calculation feat that required millions of hours of supercomputer. Then, they used these simulations to form a type of AI called neural network, which allows it to determine the lines of a black hole based on observation data. Finally, they nourished the data on the sagittarius A * that EHT had collected throughout 2017.

The AI ​​indicated that the sagittarius has been between 80 and 90% of its highest possible speed. He also alerted the researchers that none of their magnetic field models corresponded particularly to our black hole – therefore more mathematical work is necessary. Janssen says that previous studies had reduced the range of properties that Sagittarius has * could have, like the speed at which it turns and what type of magnetic fields surrounds it, but this new approach has pinned them more precisely.

Dimitrios Psaltis at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta says he has found some of these counter-intuitive results. Previous analyzes could not even clarify if the rotation of the black hole could be determined this precisely from EHT data, he says.

Some past works have indicated that the Sagittarius A * could turn very quickly, explains Yosuke Mizuno at Shanghai Jiao Tong university in China. But he notes that the computer models used in the new study have the place of improvement. “Our theoretical model is still not perfect,” he says.

But Mizuno and Psaltis say that AI is an integral part of us how we learn about exotic cosmic objects like black holes. “We are in a situation where we have a lot of data and we have a lot of models, and we need modern ways to combine both,” explains Psaltis. “This is where automatic learning makes a big and big difference.”

At the same time, this brings its own challenges, because the work of the AI ​​must be resumed and a subsequent analysis against possible hallucinations.

Janssen and his team have already carried out numerous checks of this type, such as the AI ​​test with specially designed simulation data. Other tests will occur because they analyze data from other years of EHT operation and, in the end, the data of new observatories, he says.