Dark matter core could replace the Milky way black hole

Astronomers have proposed a radical alternative to the long-held belief that a supermassive black hole sits at the centre of the Milky Way, suggesting that instead a dense clump of dark matter could generate the same gravitational effects.

The new study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, argues that an ultra-compact dark matter core can explain both the rapid motions of stars near our galactic centre and the larger-scale rotation of our Galaxy, News.Az reports, citing Skyatnightmagazine.

A new theory for Sagittarius A*?

For decades, the object known as Sagittarius A* has been interpreted as a black hole more than four million times the mass of the Sun, largely because stars in its vicinity, called S-stars, whirl aroundit at enormous speeds.

However, an international team have put forward a fermionic dark matter model that could reproduce the same stellar motions without a black hole.

News.Az 

By Leyla Şirinova