The black mammary road hole is constantly bubble

The black hole in the heart of the Milky Way neither slumbers nor sleeps. On the contrary, the plasma ring that surrounds it constantly, painted by Superbright flames, show observations.

Astronomers used the James Webb spatial telescope to observe the SG A* and its disk for hours at one year, from April 2023 to April 2024.

The telescope discovered a “constant bubble” in the disk light that changed every few seconds or minutes, says astrophysicist Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwest University in Evanston, Ill. Several times a day, and seemingly at random, the disk would release a bright flame, Yusef-Zadeh and Collarers per day, and seemingly casual, the disk would release a bright, yusef-zadeh blind. Astrophysical journal letters.

The supermasive black hole, called Sagittarius A* or Sgr A* for February, is about 4 million times heavier than the sun and extends about 26,000 light years from our solar system. The black hole is quite quiet most of the time, only occasionally swallowing materials near it and leaving explosions of light and energy.

But that doesn’t mean it’s just lying there. Previous observations, including the first image of the black hole, had suggested that the white hot plasma discuated disclined around it is constantly staring at it. Computer simulations on how the material flows into the collection disk predicted that the discs of the disk should vary from minutes to years. New observations not only confirm those ideas, but also shed light on how the ignition happens.

JWST has some advantages to other telescopes that allowed him to capture disk variability in action. Because the telescope is not in the orbit of the Earth, the Earth never gets on its way, letting the telescope take on a more constant appearance. It can also observe objects at two different wavelengths of light at the same time.

“We can see things in color than black and white,” says Yusef-Zadeh.

Researchers think there are two processes at work, says Yusef-Zadeh. The turbulence in the disk itself causes bubble. Meanwhile, the process behind large ignitions can be analogous to magnetic reconnection events, in which two lines of the magnetic field collide and emit energy explosions. These events also occur during solar ignitions.

The team has asked for a full 24 hours of continuous surveillance with JWST to learn more.