The supermassive black hole that resides at the very centre of our galaxy has been sparkling with a bright light and scientists can’t tell the exact reason behind it.
The supermassive black hole is called Sagittarius A* and is 4 million times as massive as the Sun.
Though no light escapes its boundaries, astronomers can observe the hole’s interactions with bright stars or dust clouds that surround it.
Here’s a timelapse of images over 2.5 hr from May from @keckobservatory of the supermassive black hole Sgr A*. The black hole is always variable, but this was the brightest we’ve seen in the infrared so far. It was probably even brighter before we started observing that night! pic.twitter.com/MwXioZ7twV
— Tuan Do (@quantumpenguin) August 11, 2019
According to Vice, on the 13th of May, 2019, astronomer Tuan Do and his colleagues were watching the black hole. In a period of just two hours, they witnessed the supermassive black hole become 75 times brighter in the near-infrared band of the light spectrum.
A forthcoming study, led by Do and published on the arXiv preprint server observed:
That spring evening, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole “reached much brighter flux levels in 2019 than ever measured at near-infrared wavelengths.
This unusual sparkle at the centre of the galaxy was likely caused by close encounters between Sgr A* and objects surrounding it, Do and his team suggested.
The team also speculated that a star called S0-2, a celestial about 15 times the mass of the Sun might also have provided some fuel for the black hole to burn. In 2018, it had come within 17 light-years of Sgr A* and could have disturbed the gasses at the event horizon, causing the brightening event.
Do says that the black hole is waking up and nothing more can be said at this point without further data.
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