The Immense "Frame Dragging" Of Sagittarius A*, The Black Hole At The Center Of Our Milky Way, Distorts Space-Time Into An Egg-Shape...

This is just. . . fascinating. The scale alone, of it. . . is hard to imagine.

In a newly-published scientific paper, Dr. Ruth Daly at Penn State has estimated that the black hole (which is 4.1 million times more massive than the Sun) is spinning so quickly that it has warped the fabric of space near the galaxy's center into an ovoid, or egg-like shape. It wildly distorts what is seen in behind it. Here's the latest (a derivative of a Space.com artist's image of the phenomenon is at right).

. . .According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, when a massive object is spinning, it can drag spacetime around with it. This phenomenon is called "frame dragging," and even our spinning Earth has been observed to warp spacetime in its vicinity.

[. . .T]he effect is far more pronounced for extremely massive objects, like supermassive black holes that are many millions or even billions of times more massive than our sun. And the more quickly such a massive object spins, the more spacetime flattens around it, thereby adopting that oval-shape.

However, the spin-rate of our galaxy's 4.1-million-solar-mass black hole, which is called Sagittarius A* or Sgr A* for short, has been difficult to pin down. Most estimates have varied widely. A group of astronomers, led by Ruth Daly of Penn State University, has now applied a procedure called the "outflow method" to get a measure of Sgr A*'s angular velocity — that is, how many times it spins per second. . . .

[And, from NASA. . .] Looking at the spinning black hole from the side, as depicted in this illustration, the surrounding spacetime is shaped like a football. The faster the spin the flatter the football.

The yellow-orange material to either side represents gas swirling around Sgr A*. This material inevitably plunges towards the black hole and crosses the event horizon once it falls inside the football shape. The area inside the football shape but outside the event horizon is therefore depicted as a cavity. The blue blobs show jets firing away from the poles of the spinning black hole. Looking down on the black hole from the top, along the barrel of the jet, spacetime is a circular shape. . . .

Now you know. And with my middle guy as a Niners fan, I have to pull for the city by the bay, tonight (even if I think Patrick is unstoppable). Grinning.

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