New Dark Matter Theory Challenges Existence of Sagittarius A* Black Hole

Key facts

• Astronomers have proposed a theoretical model suggesting that Sagittarius A*, the object at the centre of the Milky Way, may be a dense concentration of dark matter rather than a supermassive black hole.
• The traditional interpretation of the galactic core is based on the presence of a black hole with a mass equivalent to approximately four million Suns.
• The new hypothesis suggests that dark matter consisting of fermions could create an extremely dense core at the centre of the galaxy surrounded by a large dark matter halo.
• This dark matter configuration aims to explain the high-velocity orbits of S-stars near the galactic core and the overall rotation curve of the Milky Way.
• The model proposes that the dark central region observed by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) could be caused by gravitational lensing effects produced by concentrated dark matter rather than an event horizon.
• If supported, the theory would imply a continuous mass distribution from the galactic centre to the halo instead of a single central singularity.