“Every large galaxy has a black hole in its center,” the authors write. “The interaction between the black hole and its host profoundly shapes galactic evolution and the Universe as a whole. The key features of this interaction are black hole jets\u2014or more generally, winds\u2014which every black hole must have.”<\/p>\n
Astrophysics shows us that the only way a SMBH could have no winds or jets is if it’s in a total vacuum. But there are no perfect vacuums in our Universe, so Sagittarius A-star must be producing a wind. <\/p>\n
“Despite the proximity and importance of our Galaxy\u2019s central black hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the active wind from it has eluded scientists for over half a century,” the researchers write. It’s difficult to see into the center of the galaxy because it’s blocked by the plane of the galaxy, and all of its gas and dust. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo observe our own black hole, we have to look through the plane of our galaxy,\u201d Murchikova said. \u201cThat means we have to peer through gas, dust and ionized structures, and you can\u2019t really see through all of that easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s also possible that the SMBH is in a period of total inactivity, meaning even perfect observations wouldn’t detect it. But that never seemed very likely to scientists. <\/p>\n
“Unless a black hole exists in a perfect vacuum, it must blow a wind somehow,\u201d said Northwestern\u2019s Mark Gorski, who co-led the study. \u201cAnd there is no perfect vacuum in the universe. With new observations, this is the first time we\u2019ve had a clean enough view to see the wind\u2019s imprint. We looked at the data and said, \u2018There it is. There is the thing that everybody\u2019s been looking for for 50 years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The thing they saw is a large cone-shaped clearing in gas near the SMBH created by the SMBH itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the first to show that molecular gas very, very close to the black hole is feeding it,\u201d said Elena Murchikova, who co-led the study with Gorski. \u201cThe wind is not powerful, and its direction probably wanders with time. It shows that our black hole is not unique, and our place in the universe is not unique.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scientists already knew a lot about this central region of the Milky Way. “It is well established that the inner few parsecs of the Galactic center contain a large amount of molecular gas,” the authors write. Most of it is in a structure called the circumnuclear disk or CND. The CND extends to about 3 to5 parsecs from the SMBH. Previous research shows that the CND’s inner edge was about 0.5 parsecs from the SMBH. The CND is mostly devoid of the cold molecular gas that forms stars, and full of hot ionized gas and atomic gas. <\/p>\n
In this work, the researchers used ALMA to carefully observe the SMBH’s neighbourhood. These new observations show that there’s plenty of cold molecular gas there. <\/p>\n
“Carbon monoxide (CO) is the most commonly used tracer of the molecular gas in the interstellar medium (ISM),” the authors explain. “It emits bright lines and is readily excited at the low densities and temperatures.” The authors used ALMA to measure carbon-12’s rotation and map out the gas in the region. <\/p>\n
“We detect a large conical clearing in the cold molecular gas surrounding Sgr A-star that is at least 1 parsec long and has a \u223c45\u00b0 opening angle,” the authors write. “The morphology and energetics of this structure are consistent with active clearing of gas by a hot wind from Sgr A-star.”<\/p>\n
SMBH emit winds from very near the event horizons, where conditions are hottest. As this hot wind moves outward, it slams into colder molecular gas in the CND. “In this context an outflow\/wind from the black hole would be identified by a clearing of cold gas on the path of the high-temperature plasma,” the authors write. ALMA’s data shows a cone-shaped area devoid of cold gas, which is exactly what should be there if Sagittarius A-star does have winds. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you blow hot material from the black hole, it\u2019s not going to want to exist with the cold material,\u201d Gorski said. \u201cIt\u2019s either going to push the cold material out or heat it up. And, if it\u2019s too hot, you will no longer see the cold gas.\u201d<\/p>\n Nothing else in the region could’ve created this conical void. Stars have winds, too, but this is far too massive to be from a star. There are a lot of stars there in the nuclear cluster. But even if the winds from all of the stars in the region were combined together, they couldn’t create a void this large. And why would it be conical? They also considered a supernova origin for the cone and discarded that. For the authors, there’s one clear conclusion. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a huge absence of material,\u201d Gorski said. \u201cWe calculated how much energy was needed to create this cavity. It is more than can be provided by the stars in that area. Basically, there has to be input from the supermassive black hole. And, if you follow the shape of the cone, it\u2019s pointed directly at the black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n “We argue that the observed CO cavity is likely created by a hot active wind originating from Sgr A-star,” the researchers write. <\/p>\n![\"These](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/apjlae63cff1_hr_20260605_184222.jpg\"\/)
<\/a> *These panels from the research shows the conical clearing in the gas near Sagittarius A-star. The researchers say it’s clear evidence of the SMBH’s winds. The left panel shows carbon-12 and highlights the molecular gas structure. The right panel shows gas rotation around the black hole. Image Credit: Gorski and Murchikova 2026. ApJL DOI 10.3847\/2041-8213\/ae63cf* <\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/apjlae63cff4_hr_20260605_191718.jpg\"\/)
<\/a> *This figure from the research shows the conical void in the lower right. But it also reveals another feature in the upper left. The authors say this is a “tentative counterwind cone,” which supports the idea of a black hole wind creating the cone. Image Credit: Gorski and Murchikova 2026. ApJL DOI 10.3847\/2041-8213\/ae63cf*<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SMBH_wind_with_xray_20260605_192240.jpg\"\/)
<\/a> *This image shows both molecular gas (orange\/brown) data from ALMA and x-ray (blue) data from Chandra. Since hot gas emits x-rays, the blue in the cone shows how Chandra’s observations match ALMA’s. Image Credit: Gorski and Murchikova 2026. ApJL DOI 10.3847\/2041-8213\/ae63cf*<\/p>\n