Glimpses of Violence Around the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Sub : Sci

Sec: Space sector

Why in News

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided an unprecedented view of the chaotic activity surrounding Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

Observations by the JWST:

Launched in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope began collecting data in 2022, offering astronomers a prolonged view of the Sgr A* region for the first time.
Instead of a stable structure, the black hole’s surroundings were found to be highly dynamic, with constant flickering light emerging from the accretion disk—a swirling disk of gas around the black hole.
The flickering originates from material near the event horizon, the point beyond which nothing can escape the gravitational pull of the black hole.
The observations detected one to three major flares in a 24-hour period, along with several smaller bursts.

Nature of Accretion Disk Activity:

The accretion disk is an extremely chaotic and turbulent region, where gases become highly compressed as they approach the black hole under extreme gravitational forces.
Magnetic fields within the disk force gas clouds to collide and compress, a process comparable to the formation of solar flares on the Sun.
Unlike solar flares, these bursts occur in an entirely different astrophysical environment and are far more energetic.
Refer: Black holes

Sagittarius A*:

Sgr A* has an estimated mass of four million times that of the Sun.
It is located approximately 26,000 light-years away from Earth.
While the observed events are significant, Sgr A* is relatively inactive compared to black holes at the centres of other galaxies.
Unlike some other black holes that consume entire stars, the accretion disk of Sgr A* is primarily composed of stellar wind material from nearby stars, which is pulled in by its gravitational force.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST):

Largest and most powerful telescope in space.
It has a huge mirror that is five times bigger than that of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
JWST was launched on, the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2.
The telescope has been looking at the early epochs in the history of the Universe, when the first galaxies had barely formed.
Its images were, however, very different from what astronomers had thought they would see.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or “Webb”) is a joint NASA–ESA–CSA space telescope that is planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission.
JWST will study various phases in the history of the universe, from the formation of solar systems to the evolution of our own Solar System.
The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity.