According to an analysis of new data from NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the ejaculation ability that orbits Sagittarius a* emits a constant flow of flares with no period of rest. Some flares are faint flickering for a few seconds, while others are blindly bright eruptions that spit out every day. There is also slight flicker than the surges for several months at a time.
The artist's concept depicts an ultra-high Massive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy known as Sagittarius a*. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/RALF CRAWFORD, STSCI.
“We expect flares to occur in essentially every super-large black hole, but our black holes are unique,” says Dr. Farhad Yousef Zadeh, an astronomer at Northwestern University. Ta.
“It's always bubbled up with activity and doesn't seem to reach a stable state.”
“We observed Sagittarius A* multiple times throughout 2023 and 2024, and noticed changes in all observations.”
“We saw something different each time, and that's really surprising. It didn't stay the same.”
Dr. Yousefzadeh and his colleagues used it Webb's nircam instrument Observe Sagittarius A* in total of 48 hours, increments of 8-10 hours over a year.
They expected to see the flare, but Sagittarius A* was more active than he had expected.
The accretion disk surrounding the black hole produced 5-6 large flares per day, during which several small subflares were generated.
“Our data showed constantly changing and bubbly brightness,” Dr. Yusef-Zadeh said.
“And boom! A huge explosion of brightness suddenly appeared. Then it settled down again. No patterns were found in this activity. It seems random. The activity profile of the black hole is what we see every time we see it. It was new and exciting.”
“It appears to be caused by two separate processes: short bursts and long flares. If the accretion disk is a river, the short, faint flicker is like a small ripple that fluctuates randomly on the surface of the river. .”
“But longer, brighter flares are like tidal waves caused by more important events.”
“Mild faults in the accretion disk can produce faint flickers. Specifically, turbulent fluctuations within the disk cause plasma (high-temperature charge gas) to be compressed and temporary. It can cause a burst of radiation.”
“This is similar to the way the solar magnetic fields gather together to compress and eject solar flares.”
“Of course, the environment around the black hole is much more energetic and extreme, so the process is more dramatic. But the surface of the sun also bubbles up with activity.”
Astronomers attribute large, bright flares to magnetic reconnection events. This is the process in which two magnetic fields collide and release energy in the form of accelerated particles. These particles, moving at a speed close to the speed of light, emit a burst of bright radiation.
“The magnetic reconnection event is like a static electricity spark, and in some ways it is also an electrical reconnection,” Dr. Yusef-Zadeh said.
The team wants to use Webb to observe Sagittarius A* for a long period of time.
“When you're watching such a weak flare event, you have to compete with the noise,” said Dr. Yousef Zadeh.
“If you can observe 24 hours a day, you can reduce the noise and see features that you didn't see before. That would be great. Also, these flares show periodicity (or repeat yourself) or really You can also check if it is random.”
Survey results It will be published in Astrophysics Journal Letter.
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F. Yusef-Zadeh et al. 2025. Nonstop Variation of SgrA** Uses JWST at wavelengths of 2.1 and 4.8 microns: evidence of clear populations of faint and bright variable emissions. apjlin press; Arxiv: 2501.04096
Source: www.sci.news
