Table of Contents
There is a pretty warm party in the black hole in the middle of our Milky Way. With the help of new observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astrophysici discovered that the swirling disc of fabric and gas in a job around the Sagittarius A* constant different torches. An accretion disc called, this ring of matter around Sagittarius, spewed everything of short fagers that only last a few seconds to incredibly clear daily eruptions to faint even fainting that lasted steadily for months. The findings are detailed in one Study published on February 18 in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Why is Sagittarius an* important?
Sagittarius A* is the super -massive black hole in the middle of our Melkweg house. It has a mass equal to billions of suns and has an accretion disk that consists of gas and dust around it. Accretion discs are also the Main light source from a black hole. Only 26,000 light years away from the earthSagittarius A* is one of the few black holes that scientists can observe to see the flow of gas and dust in his accretion.
“It is expected that torches will essentially happen all super-massive black holes, but our black hole is unique,” Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, co-author and astrophysicist at Northwestern University, said in a statement. “It is always bubbling of activity and never seems to achieve a stable state. We have observed the black hole several times during 2023 and 2024 and we noticed changes in every observation. We saw something different every time, which is really remarkable. Nothing ever remained the same. “
Studying archer A* can help physicists better understand the fundamental nature of black holes, how they deal with their environment, and even the evolution of our own galactic house.
[ Related: Can the black hole in the center of our galaxy expand to our solar system? ]
Black hole fireworks
In the new study, the JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCAM) team used. This instrument can at the same time observe two infrared colors for a long time. They observed archer A* with their nircam for a total of 48 hours, with the help of steps of 8 to 10 hours in one earth’s year. This allowed them to keep track of how the black hole changed over time, similar to a time-lapse video.
With the help of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the northwestern astrophysici got the longest, most detailed glimpse so far from the super -heavy black hole in the middle of the Milky Way. They discovered that the black hole’s accretion disk will broadcast a constant stream of torches without rest periods. This video shows the 2.1 Micron data taken on April 7, 2024. Credit: Farhad Yusef-Zadeh/Northwestern University.
While torches were expected, archer a* was more active than would be expected. The team saw “constantly fireworks” of various brightness and expensive. About five to six large torches with different smaller subflares in between sprayed from the Accretion Disc.
“In our data we saw constantly changing, bubbling brightness,” said Yusef-Zadeh. ‘And then boom! A large eruption of brightness suddenly appeared. Then it calmed again. We could not find a pattern in this activity. It seems to be random. The activity profile of the black hole was new and exciting every time we looked at it. “
Galactic ripples and tidal waves
The team suspects that there are two separate processes behind the short eruptions and longer torches. These short and vague fagers are like the small ripples who randomly fluctuate on the surface of a water body. The longer and brighter torches, however, are more like tidal waves and are caused by more significant events.
The small disruptions within the accretion disk probably generate the vague fags. Turbulent fluctuations on the disk can be a Hot, electrically charged gas called plasma And create a temporary eruption of radiation. According to Yusef-Zadeh, these events are similar to solar flares.
“It is similar to how the magnetic field of the sun collects, compresses and then bursts a tanning lamb,” said Yusef-Zadeh. “Of course the processes are more dramatic because the environment around a black hole is much more energetic and much more extreme. But the surface of the sun is also bubbling with activity. ‘
The large, clear and dramatic torches are probably more like Magnetic reconnection events. This is when two magnetic fields collide and release energy in the form of accelerated particles. These particles travel at speeds near the speed of light and shoot clear outbursts of radiation.
“A magnetic reconnection event is like a spark of static electricity, which in a certain sense is also an” electrical red connection, “said Yusef-Zadeh.
It’s a matter of time – for measurements
JWST’s Nircam can observe two separate wavelengths (2.1 and 4.8 micron) at the same time. With this, the team could compare how the brightness of the torches changed with each wavelength. Capturing light with two wavelengths is similar to “Seeing in color instead of black and white”, says Yusef-Zadeh. By observing archer A* at multiple wavelengths, the team made a more complete and nuanced picture of the behavior of the black hole.
Even with the powerful nircam, the team was still surprised. They unexpectedly discovered that events that were observed at the shorter wavelength actually changed with brightness just before the events with a longer wavelength.
[ Related: Gaze upon the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. ]
“This is the first time that we have seen a delay in measurements at these wavelengths,” said Yusef-Zadeh. “We have observed these wavelengths at the same time with Nircam and have noticed the longer wavelength behind the shorter backlog with a very small quantity – maybe a few seconds to 40 seconds.”
According to the teamThis time delay gave more instructions about which physical processes occur around the black hole. An explanation is that the particles lose energy in the course of the flare and can lose energy faster with shorter wavelengths than with longer wavelengths. These changes are expected for particles that spiral around magnetic field lines.
In future studies, Yusef-Zadeh hopes to use the JWST to observe archer A* for a longer period, possibly for a continuous period of 24 hours. A longer observation can help reduce noise and enable scientists to observe even finer details.
“If you look at such weakly flaring events, you have to compete with noise,” said Yusef-Zadeh. “If we can observe 24 hours, we can reduce the sound to see functions that we could not see before. That would be great. We can also see whether these torches show (or repeat) periodicity or whether they are really random. “
More Deals, Reviews and Purchase Guides