Chandra Release - September 5, 2001

Visual Description: Sagittarius A*

The X-ray astronomical image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory features supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, as the main subject. The image is dominated by shades of brown around the perimeter, with some green and yellow interspersed around the center. The bright, point-like source at the center of the image was produced by a huge X-ray flare that occurred in the vicinity of Sagittarius A*,  has about 4 million times the mass of our Sun.  Sagittarius A* is one of the brightest sources of X-rays in the sky and has been studied extensively by scientists to better understand black holes and their role in the universe.