Posted on by Andy Tomaswick

Astronomers See Flares Coming from the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

This artist’s conception of the mid-IR flare in Sgr A* captures the variability, or changing intensity, of the flare as the black hole’s magnetic field lines bunch together. This bunching results in magnetic reconnection, which produces particles and energy that spiral along the magnetic field lines until they cool and release their energy, spiking the intensity of the flare. Credit: CfA/Melissa Weiss

There’s plenty of action at the center of the galaxy, where a supermassive black hole (SMBH) known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) literally holds the galaxy together. Part of that action is the creation of gigantic flares from Sgr A*, which can give off energy equivalent to 10 times the Sun’s annual energy output. However, scientists have been missing a key feature of these flares for decades – what they look like in the mid-infrared range. But now, a team led by researchers at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy has published a paper that details what a flare looks like in those frequencies for the first time.

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