Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.
Astronomers have spotted flares and echos coming from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* . These"cosmic fireworks" and X-ray echoes could help scientists better understand the dark and quiet cosmic titan around which our galaxy orbits. had been caught by NuSTAR, which has been observing the cosmos in X-rays since July 2012. These signals had previously been missed by astronomers.
"That's why astronomers need to know when and where these flares occur, so they can study the black hole's environment using that light."are believed to exist at the hearts of all large galaxies.
hole, however. Some charged particles are channeled to the black hole's poles, where they are blasted out as near-light-speed jets that are also accompanied by bright electromagnetic radiation.Furthermore, not all supermassive black holes sit in AGNs and act as the central engines of quasars. Some aren't surrounded by a wealth of gas, dust or unfortunate stars that get too close.
The supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way Sgr A* seen in polarized light for the first time.Michigan State University's Grace Sanger-Johnson focused on dramatic bursts of high-energy light for the analysis, which provide a unique opportunity to study the immediate environment around the black hole. As a result, she found nine examples of these extreme flares.
Because clouds of gas and dust like this that drift between stars don't generate X-rays like stars themselves do, when astronomers detected these high-energy light emissions from the Bridge, they knew they must be coming from another source, then being reflected off this molecular cloud.
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