Does Something Unknown Lurk at the Galactic Center?

It may be a bit of a long way away (26,000 ly)  but it is an interesting place to go.  At 26,000 light years away it would take  26,000 years as measured by clocks on Earth at the speed of light, and no time at all as measured by your watch. Time is relative, not fixed. Strange, but true.  

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, can be seen just by looking up on a decent night. the naked eye is the best instrument to use so try it here

Galactic Center

So what makes up the galactic centre? Well there is a clumpy ring of gas (rich in molecules) and dust about 5–15 ly from the exact centre. Inside this is a dense star cluster around the bright radio source Sagittarius A, which is believed to mark the very centre of the Galaxy.

Black holes are invisible but can be detected by their influence on nearby stars. By observing the motion of 28 stars orbiting the Milky Way’s centre scientists believe that there is actually a supermassive black hole there, so Sagittarius A  is said to be a supermassive black hole. Sagittarius A is estimated to be 4 million times as heavy as the Sun, that’s a little more than obese. For an in depth discussion try here.

Almost everybody has concluded that a black hole is at the centre of our galaxy, even my Mum, and many measurements over many years point to this. But we can’t actually get to the centre and the proof we have is concluded by us standing on the planet Earth and making those conclusions. (Or nearby, mustn’t forget the Hubble space telescope!). 

So what could be at the centre of the galaxy? Well how about nothing? No, nothing is not really an option here as too many things are happening around the centre. What if something else is affecting the stars and producing radio signals? Perhaps millions of objects around the centre are causing all the effects. Instead of pulling things inwards like a black hole perhaps these objects are pulling in different directions.

Sagittarius A

  So what could be causing this? Lots of individual habitats of a very advanced civilisation surrounding the centre may have developed the power to manipulate suns as they feel fit. It becomes a very weak argument when you think about why anyone would want to do this. But if this advanced civilisation is that advanced then their reasons may well be too advanced and to alien for us to understand. 

Perhaps it could be some sort of power production system. The movement of the stars may be harnessed and their movement actually produce the power needed for thousands of civilisations. Like some big machine. Unfortunately it seems we are not connected to the grid yet.

Perhaps the movement of the stars, which is very noticeable as you can see from the video above (although that was taken over 16 years) is a sign or message. Or it may be just far too simple a reason like art for instance. Really pushing the limit I suppose the stars could be weapons.

So galaxies are used as weapons? No I am not going crazy.  Jets of radiation and particles supposedly emitted by a black hole  have actually been seen coming from one galaxy and affecting another.  The combined effects of the radiation and particles traveling at almost the speed of light could severely damage the atmospheres of planets lying in the path of the jet. For example, protective layers of ozone in the upper atmosphere of planets could be destroyed. 

The universe is so big I don’t see why this idea is nuts. just imagine a universe of galaxies that have to fight for their survival. Sounds a bit like nature. It  would really show how small and insignificant we are. For more information try here

Lots of habitats surrounding a star has already been suggested by Freeman Dyson. Dyson speculated that such structures would be needed by a technological civilization to actually power their needs and hunger for expansion, and proposed that searching for evidence of the existence of such structures might lead to the detection of advanced intelligent extraterrestrial life. More here. To read a good SF book heavily involving Dyson Spheres try Pandora’s Star

Perhaps the centre could be distorted by something between us and the centre of the galaxy. There is a lot of dust obscuring Sagittarius A which perhaps may have some hand in creating a different story than a supermassive black hole. Obviously don’t forget that everything we see is 26,000 years old, give or take a year or two, which is a bit of a mind bending thought. A book I am reading at the moment is The Dreaming Void (Void Trilogy 1) takes the reader to the centre of the galaxy where things are not quite as they seem.

To widen the field a bit I should mention that some kind of extraordinary activity is going on at the centre of one in ten of all the galaxies in the Universe. Very often, the centre of one of these galaxies produces so much light that it outshines the rest of the galaxy. These ‘active’ galaxies can be a hundred times brighter than a normal galaxy and, because of this, they are visible over huge distances.

You would need a very good pair of sunglasses and some excellent suntan lotion to live in one of those galaxies.

How to see the Milky Way galaxy

Facts and images of the Milky Way Galaxy