An international team of scientists studied the data obtained by astrophysicists while studying red giants near a black hole in the center of the Galaxy. The researchers concluded that there are inaccuracies in the data.
Last spring, astronomers discovered high levels of three elements - scandium, vanadium and yttrium - in a group of red giants less than three light-years from a black hole in the center of the galaxy. This has puzzled astronomers who have tried to explain the phenomenon using various theories. According to one of them, abnormally high levels of elements are triggered by the descent of old stars into a black hole. Another argued that these elements are remnants from collisions of neutron stars.
The most recent explanation was recently proposed by an international group of astronomers and atomic physicists. They argue that in reality the observed high concentrations of these elements do not exist, and all this is just an illusion. Scientists write about this in an article in the Astrophysical Journal.
Initially, they registered these elements based on the "spectral lines" obtained by the spectrometer. So scientists calculate the amount of light absorbed or emitted by an object. Given that different elements emit or absorb light in different ways, this information can be used to determine the composition of an object. Scandium interacts with light in a different way than vanadium itself.
Astronomers conducting a new study have found similar scandium lines in red giants near the solar system. However, the authors found that if the temperature of the red giant is below a certain level, then these lines become more intense. However, according to the researchers, this does not mean that the star contains more scandium, yttrium or vanadium.
As for the reasons for the influence of temperature on calculations, scientists suggest that the electrons in the atoms of these elements behave differently at lower temperatures than at high temperatures. So the lower temperature of the red giants - and it is much lower than the temperature of the Sun - could create this illusion of spectral lines, the researchers say.
The team suggests that the high concentration of these elements is not a unique phenomenon for red giants near black holes, but an illusion. However, scientists argue that the formation of these strong lines cannot yet be accurately described by a theoretical model.
The researchers concluded that spectral lines should not be used in calculations until they can figure out how they are formed. At the same time, scientists continue to use spectral line measurements from different stars in the Milky Way to understand what they are made of.
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