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Sagittarius A*: NASA's Chandra Detects Record-Breaking Outburst from Milky Way's Black Hole
Visual Description:

  • The largest X-ray flare from the Milky Way's supermassive black hole has been detected.

  • Chandra caught this flare, which was 400 times brighter than the black hole's usual output, in September 2013.

  • Researchers also saw a second large X-ray flare a little over a year later.

  • Two theories are being considered to explain these large flares.

On September 14, 2013, astronomers caught the largest X-ray flare ever detected from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). This event, which was captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, was 400 times brighter than the usual X-ray output from Sgr A*, as described in our press release. The main portion of this graphic shows the area around Sgr A* in a Chandra image where low, medium, and high-energy X-rays are red, green, and blue respectively. The inset box contains an X-ray movie of the region close to Sgr A* and shows the giant flare, along with much steadier X-ray emission from a nearby magnetar, to the lower left. A magnetar is a neutron star with a strong magnetic field. A little more than a year later, astronomers saw another flare from Sgr A* that was 200 times brighter than its normal state in October 2014.

Astronomers have two theories about what could be causing these "megaflares" from Sgr A*. The first idea is that the strong gravity around Sgr A* tore apart an asteroid in its vicinity, heating the debris to X-ray-emitting temperatures before devouring the remains. Their other proposed explanation involves the strong magnetic fields around the black hole. If the magnetic field lines reconfigured themselves and reconnected, this could also create a large burst of X-rays. Such events are seen regularly on the Sun and the events around Sgr A* appear to have a similar pattern in intensity levels to those.

Sgr A* is about 4.5 million times the mass of our Sun and is located about 26,000 light years from Earth. Researchers have been using Chandra to monitor Sgr A* since the telescope was launched in 1999. Recently, astronomers have been closely watching Sgr A* to see if the black hole would consume parts of a nearby cloud of gas known as G2 and cause flares in X-rays. Due to G2's distance from Sgr A* at the time of the September 2013 flare, however, researchers do not think the gas cloud was responsible for the spike in X-rays.

In addition to the giant flares, the G2 observing campaign with Chandra also collected more data on the magnetar located close to Sgr A*. This magnetar is undergoing a long X-ray outburst, and the Chandra data are allowing astronomers to better understand this unusual object.

The researchers were Daryl Haggard (Amherst College), Frederick K. Baganoff (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Gabriele Ponti (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), Craig O. Heinke (University of Alberta), Nanda Rea (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands), Joseph Neilsen (MIT), Michael Nowak (MIT), Sera Markoff (University of Amsterdam), Nathalie Degenaar (University of Michigan), Farhad Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern University), Douglas A. Roberts (Northwestern), Christaan Brinkerink (University of Nijmegen, Netherlands), Casey J. Law (University of California at Berkeley), Stefan Gillessen (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), and Riley Connors (University of Amsterdam)

These results were presented at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting being held in Seattle, Washington. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Visual Description:

A Chandra X-ray Observatory image around the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole, located in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is shown. The image is dominated by vibrant red and blue hues, with a large amount of celestial objects visible. At the center of the image, there is a bright, lumpy object showing the intense X-ray radiation emanating from the Sgr A* black hole. In the surrounding area, there are a couple smaller lumps layered throughout the image, feathering out to a large almost butterfly shape filling much of the screen. The image appears textured, like dozens of blue and orange glow worms are paused in their wriggling. An inset box at middle right contains an X-ray movie of the region close to Sgr A* and shows the giant flare, along with much steadier X-ray emission from a nearby magnetar. The X-ray emission in the timelapse is colored in blue. A magnetar is a neutron star with a strong magnetic field. A little more than a year later, astronomers saw another flare from Sgr A* that was 200 times brighter than its normal state in October 2014.

 

Fast Facts for Sagittarius A*:
Credit  NASA/CXC/Amherst College/D.Haggard et al
Release Date  January 5, 2015
Scale  Main Image is 8 arcmin across (about 61 light years); Inset is about 1 arcmin across (about 7.5 light years)
Category  Black Holes, Milky Way Galaxy
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 17h 45m 40s | Dec -29° 00´ 28.00"
Constellation  Sagittarius
Observation Date  Main Image: 43 pointings from September 21, 1999 to May 18, 2009; Inset: Sep 14, 2013
Observation Time  Main Image: 278 hours (11 days 14 hours); Inset: 13 hours 53 min.
Obs. ID  Main Image: 242, 1561, 2943, 2951-2954, 3392, 3393, 3549, 3663, 3665, 4683, 4684, 5360, 5950-5954, 6113, 6363, 6639, 6640-6646, 7554-7759, 9169-9174, 10556; Inset: 15043
Instrument  ACIS
Also Known As Galactic Center
Color Code  Energy: Red (2-3.3 keV), Green (3.3-4.7 keV), Blue (4.7-8 keV)
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 26,000 light years
distance arrow
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More Information
Press Room: Sagittarius A*
For Kids: Sagittarius A*
Blog: Sagittarius A*
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