A team of international astronomers, led by Kai Yang, has made a groundbreaking discovery using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). They have identified a new type of filamentary structure, dubbed “space tornadoes,” swirling around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
These space tornadoes are narrow, long filaments that form when energetic shock waves ripple through the turbulent region surrounding the black hole. The team used ALMA’s high resolution and sensitivity to map distinct spectral lines within molecular clouds at the center of the Milky Way, revealing a previously unknown type of structure.
The space tornadoes were unexpected findings in the emission lines of silicon monoxide (SiO) and eight other molecules. They do not fit the profile of other dense gas filaments discovered before and are inconsistent with outflows from the black hole.
According to the team, these structures likely arise due to shock processes emerging as a possible explanation. The discovery sheds new light on the cyclical processes occurring in the central molecular zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way galaxy, suggesting a material circulation mechanism that balances depletion and replenishment.
The study’s findings are significant, providing a more detailed view of dynamic processes within the CMZ. Future ALMA observations covering multiple SiO transitions and census observations spanning the CMZ could help confirm the origin of these space tornadoes and the cyclic processes at play in this extraordinary region of the Milky Way.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-03-astronomers-space-tornadoes-milky-core.html