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Astronomers who use the James Webb World Cup telescope have spied on dynamic light spots near the super massive black hole in the middle of the Milky Way. The constant, fast Fire display comprises short flashes for seconds and longer, dazzling light flarse.
The WebB observations are the longest and detailed look that researchers were able to make the central black hole of the Milky Way, which is called Sagittarius A*and was built on earlier evidence of its highly energetic activity.
While black holes are invisible, the torches, which are unleashed by the swirling disk by hot gas and dust or acceleration disc, the shooters that resemble pyrotechnic extravagance. A study in which the results were described was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on Tuesday.
Astronomers believe that the torches from the inner edge of the acceleration disc come directly behind the event horizon of the black hole or the area around a black hole in which, according to NASA, NASA cannot even escape light.
“In our data we saw ourselves constantly changing, bubbling brightness,” said Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, professor of physics and astronomy at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. “And then boom! Suddenly a great boost of brightness appeared. Then it calmed down again. We couldn’t find a pattern in this activity. It seems to be random. The activity profile of this black hole was new and exciting every time we looked at it. “
The observations could shed light on how black holes behave and how they feed on their surroundings.
Watch heavenly fireworks
The strong, gravitational influence of black holes draws gas and dust from every heavenly object that walks too close. The gas and dust whirl together at high speed and form the accretion disc that feeds the black hole. The quick movement of the material heats it up, energy released in the form of radiation and material rays that do not make it into the black hole.
The radiation and jets can change the way gas is distributed in galaxies and feed the formation of stars, which is why super massive black holes in the centers of the galaxies are viewed as huge engines.
Yusef-Zadeh and his colleagues observed the Sagittarius A*, also called SGR A*, in eight to 10 hours for 48 hours and used the near-infrared camera from WebB to track the activity of the black hole. The team spied five to six large torches a day and smaller flashes of light in between.
“It is expected that torches essentially take place in all super massive black holes, but our black hole is unique,” said Yusef-Zadeh. “It always bubbles with activity and never seems to achieve a inpatient state. We watched the black hole several times during 2023 and 2024 and have found changes with every observation. We saw something else every time that is really remarkable.“”
The variability of the activity of the black hole is probably due to the random nature of the material flowing into the accretion disc, said Yusef-Zadeh.
The team believes that the short light outbursts are generated by minor turbulent fluctuations within the accretion disc that could cause hot, energetic gas called Plasma and a radiation flash.
“It resembles how the magnetic field of the sun is compressed, compressed and then breaks out a sunlight,” said Yusef-Zadeh in an explanation. “Of course, the processes are more dramatic because the surroundings around a black hole are much more energetic and much more extreme.”
In the meantime, the longer, larger torches can occur due to magnetic re -connection events or if two different magnetic fields collide near the black hole and release energetic particles that move near the speed of light.
“A magnetic re-connection event is like a spark of static electricity, which in a sense is also an electrical reconnection,” said Yusef-Zadeh.
A “rainbow” of the activity
The functions of webb enabled the team to watch the black hole flicker over two different wavelengths of light at the same time.
“(It was like) to see the world in color and to see in black and white, and (we) found rainbows,” said Yusef-Zadeh. “This tells them about the nature of Flacking activity and the physical properties of the radiation mechanism, the magnetic field and the density of the torches more direct.”
The observations offer a deeper insight into the activity of the black hole activity in the brightness over time, said Tuan do, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and deputy director of the Galactic Center Group at the UCLA.
To was not involved in this study, but in the past has researched research on Sagittarius A*, also when the Black Loch 2019 showed unusual activities.
“SGR A* has become about half as bright in the new data as in 2019. I think that 2019 is still unusually active for the black hole,” said do do. “However, the black hole and its surroundings always change, so we are never sure what we will find! This is what makes observations of the Galactic Center so exciting, although we have stared in this place in the sky for decades. “
When the authors of the latest study at the same time observed the two different wavelengths of light from the black hole, they realized that the shorter wavelength in the brightness changed shortly before the longer wavelength. The observation pointed out that the particles that save around magnetic field lines losing energy losing energy faster.
The changes in brightness were found in previous research and the latest supplementary data from the infrarot instrument of the WebB telescope and other observatories.
“I think the next big step would be to connect these different data sources to form a more comprehensive picture of the area of the area around the super massive black hole,” said do do.
The new study also confirms that the black hole, as already observed, has “uninterrupted variability”, said Mark Morris, a respected research professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA. Morris was not involved in the new study.
“X -ray astronomers see somewhat strong everything we saw in the last quarter of a century that we examined SGR A*exactly.”
What would have caused these torches? Astronomers still don’t know, but it is possible for the black hole to devour a planet a few hundred years ago, said Morris.
When the sun releases sun storms, scientists are worried because this activity may affect the GPS, communication and power network on earth. At 25,000 light years away, the highly energetic and variable activity of the central black hole of the Milky Way is not a problem, said Morris.
However, the webb telescopic observations enable researchers to understand what kind of “storms” are created when matter is compressed and heated when they are pulled towards the black hole.
“About the pure interest in the most dazzling fireworks that can produce the universe, these fireworks can have a profound effect on the development of the galaxies in which they are located,” said Morris. “You can provoke or hinder the star formation on large standards, you can remove gas and clear out galaxies so that you cannot form stars.”
A longer look
The study authors do not believe that the black hole experienced an unusual increase in activity, but they want to watch the shooter A* for uninterrupted 24 hours to be safe.
“We can also see whether these torches show (or repeat themselves) or whether they are really random,” said Yusef-Zadeh.
Astronomers still don’t know how quickly Sagittarius A* turns because it devours the matter, but longer observations could provide the required data to find the answer.
Ultimately, more data from webb observations from Sagittarius a* astronomers could help to simulate how accretion panes deal with black holes and the behavior less energetically active, black holes compare with active.
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