Over the last two decade or so , astronomer have noticed changes in Sagittarius A , the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way . vivid flares have been reported , with a particularly spectacularone last May . A new study now confirm its activity is indeed exchange .
The research by French and Belgian astronomer , accepted for publication inAstronomy & Astrophysics , builds on previous work published a few years back by the same star authors . In the prior sketch , they observe 107 flash from Sagittarius A * between 1999 and 2015 . The novel work add up 14 more flares observed between 2016 and 2018 .
No departure in the flaring charge per unit of the black hollow was recover with statistical analytic thinking . However , they did detect that the number of bright flares increased . This change has been ongoing since the end of August 2014 , according to psychoanalysis based on Adam - ray information from the Chandra , XMM - Newton , and Swift lookout .
Why the change in body process ? That ’s exactly what the squad are working to find out . After a shiny solar flare in 2019 , a potential explanation was posited that the move of certain champion around the black hole might have vary the amount of gasoline reaching it . The nigh transition of star S2 in 2018 could have potentially pushed some gas inwards and create last year ’s flare . Thenewly discovered S62 , the closemouthed star orbiting the black hole , had a tightlipped transit in 2013 , so these stars might be affecting the supermassive black hole ’s eating . While this influence is a opening , the researcher require to move away from surmise . Observations in X - rays from 2019 are presently missing , so the team ca n’t yet liken it with what was observed last yr in well-nigh - infrared .
“ Since 2014 , the bodily process of Sgr A * thus increase in several wavelength . extra multiwavelength information are involve to close on the persistence of this increase and to find clues on the germ of this unprecedented action of the supermassive smuggled hole , ” the team wrote in thepaper .
Sagittarius A * weighs over 4 million times the batch of the Sun and is located 26,000 light - years away from Earth .
[ H / T : Science Alert ]
