The James Webb Space Telescope has allowed scientists to observe the central black hole at the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy, Sagittarius A*, for the first time. The telescope’s sensitive instruments picked up incredible flares of light spewing out of the black hole, resembling pyrotechnics. These rare flares are believed to originate from an accretion disk located just beyond the event horizon, a region with such intense gravity that even light cannot escape.
Astronomers at Northwestern University spent over a year observing Sagittarius A* in eight-to-ten hour increments and noticed changes in every observation. The researchers were surprised by the black hole’s activity profile, which was new and exciting each time they looked at it. While the mechanism that fuels black holes is well understood, scientists do not know exactly why these galaxy-powering bodies emit bright flares.
The flares observed in Sagittarius A* are singular even for other mysterious motions. “Flares are expected to happen in essentially all supermassive black holes,” said lead author Farhad Yusef-Zadeh. “But our black hole is unique. It’s always bubbling with activity and never seems to reach a steady state.” This discovery provides new insights into the behavior of these powerful objects, shedding light on their internal dynamics and potential underlying mechanisms.
Source: https://futurism.com/james-webb-black-hole-galaxy