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Show From Milky Way’s Central Black Hole
Webb Telescope Reveals Rapid-Fire Light
From Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way appears to be having a party, complete with a disco ball-style light show. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astrophysicists has gained the longest, most detailed glimpse yet of the “void” that lurks in the middle of our galaxy.
They found that the swirling disk of gas and dust (or accretion disk) orbiting the central supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A*, is emitting a constant stream of flares with no periods of rest. The level of activity occurs over a wide range of time — from short interludes to long stretches. While some flares are faint flickers, lasting mere seconds, other flares are blindingly bright eruptions, which spew daily. There also are even fainter changes that surge over months.
The new findings could help physicists better understand the fundamental nature of black holes, how they get fed from their surrounding environments, and the dynamics and evolution of our own galaxy.
The study published in the Feb. 18 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“In our data, we saw constantly changing, bubbling brightness,”
