The monstrous black hole at the core of the Milky Way is having an existential crisis. Instead of sitting quietly like a well-behaved abyss, it flickers, flares, and bubbles with bursts of energy—seemingly at random. Scientists aimed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at this cosmic enigma for a year, and the verdict is in: Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is constantly throwing fits.
This was no casual glance. From April 2023 to April 2024, JWST locked its gaze on Sgr A*, delivering the longest continuous observations ever. What it saw was a tantrum of plasma, changing from moment to moment like some celestial lava lamp.
According to astrophysicist Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, the black hole’s accretion disk—a swirling vortex of doom—never stops shifting. The disk’s brightness fluctuates every few seconds to minutes, and then, several times a day, it erupts in blinding flares. No schedule, no pattern, just pure chaotic brilliance.
Sgr A* is four million times the mass of the Sun and lurks 26,000 light-years away. Technically, it’s classified as a “quiet” supermassive black hole—meaning it doesn’t constantly feast on surrounding matter. But don’t let that fool you. Every so often, it wakes up, grabs a cosmic snack, and unleashes energy like a malfunctioning doomsday device.
Previous observations hinted at this flickering behavior, including the first-ever image of Sgr A*. Computer models had predicted it, too. But now, for the first time, we can see the chaos unfolding in real-time. It’s not just a theory anymore—it’s happening, right now, in the heart of our galaxy.
JWST had a distinct advantage in catching this light show. Unlike Earth-based telescopes, it doesn’t have to deal with the planet getting in the way. It can also observe in multiple wavelengths at once, giving researchers a clearer, more detailed view. “We can see things in color, rather than black and white,” Yusef-Zadeh says—because apparently, even black holes deserve high-definition treatment.
So what’s causing this cosmic turbulence? The team suspects two culprits. First, the accretion disk itself is a violent, turbulent place, naturally prone to bubbling and shifting like a star-powered jacuzzi. Second, the massive flares could be linked to magnetic reconnection—when tangled magnetic field lines snap and release energy, much like what happens in solar flares. Translation: this black hole isn’t just eating matter; it’s playing with it.
Scientists aren’t satisfied yet. They’ve requested a full 24-hour surveillance shift with JWST to see what happens when they watch the chaos unfold continuously. Because if the Milky Way’s black hole is going to keep throwing tantrums, we might as well figure out why.
Five Fast Facts
- Sagittarius A* was first hinted at in 1931 when astronomers detected strange radio waves from the galactic center.
- Despite being classified as a “quiet” black hole, Sgr A* emits occasional X-ray bursts thousands of times brighter than normal.
- JWST orbits the Sun, not Earth, allowing it to avoid atmospheric interference and capture uninterrupted data.
- Magnetic reconnection, one of the suspected causes of the black hole’s flares, also powers the Northern and Southern Lights on Earth.
- If Sgr A* were the size of a basketball, the Sun would be smaller than a grain of sand in comparison.