Sagittarius A*: Is JMN Naked Singularity an Alternative to the Black Hole Theory?

After producing the first direct image of a black hole in 2019, an international team of astronomers led by scientists at the Centre for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has successfully created an image of another. This one is possibly more exciting than the first because it lies at the heart of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The new picture was captured by researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration.

Speaking to The Hindu about the path breaking moment in space and cosmology research, Pankaj Joshi, Distinguished Professor of Physics, Ahmedabad University, hailed it as a major discovery. “It’s quite exciting for anyone studying cosmology. It is creditable that several of our papers have been cited in the accompanying study,” said Professor Joshi, whose core interests lie in general relativity and cosmology. 

While there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that Sagittarius A* (also known as SgrA*) is a black hole, writes The Hindu, the newspaper quoted Professor Joshi as saying, “In their papers, the researchers considered various alternatives such as naked singularities and wormholes. Their report in one of their papers - paper five in the series The Astrophysical Journal Letters - claims that the Joshi-Malafarina-Narayan (JMN) naked singularity with photon sphere could be the best black hole mimicker. The point is that the central object and its nature remain a question of great mystery. This is because just as a black hole event horizon would create a shadow, similarly the naked singularity also creates a similar shadow and therefore it is impossible to distinguish between the two.”

Read the article here.