Latest Sagittarius A Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel spacecraft has revealed that the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy is about to get a taste of some hot molecular gas. Sagittarius A has a mass of about four million times that of our Sun and sits about 26,000 light-years away from us. It is a few hundred times closer to us than any other galaxy with an active black hole at its center, making it ideal for studying these...

Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers may now have a way to image the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which has posed problems to scientists trying to image all of its exotic features. Soon they may be able to learn more about the features of the center of the Milky Way and learn more about where they are located in the galaxy by use of radio waves. Prior to the discovery of radio waves, astronomers primarily used optical waves like the X-ray and infrared...

[ Watch the Video: The Diner at the Center of the Galaxy ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft has detected the Milky Way's central black hole eating a Thanksgiving snack. Supermassive black holes like the one in the middle of our galaxy sustain themselves by swallowing stars, planets, asteroids, comets and clouds of gas that wander around the galaxy. The space agency's new spacecraft allowed it to take an observation of the black hole...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A team of scientists say they have detected the brightest flare ever observed in our galaxy's black hole. The astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory to detect the brightest flare ever observed from Sagittarius A*. The black hole is considered to be low-key, emitting very little energy for its size. It gives off about as much energy as the sun, despite it being 4 billion times as massive. The recent flare is 150...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has spotted its first flare from Milky Way's black hole. The new telescope, launched June 13, is the only telescope capable of producing focused images of the highest-energy X-rays, and NASA said it has caught its first look at the black hole. "We got lucky to have captured an outburst from the black hole during our observing campaign," Fiona Harrison, the mission's principal...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's newest set of X-ray eyes in the sky, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), has caught its first look at the giant black hole parked at the center of our galaxy. The observations show the typically mild-mannered black hole during the middle of a flare-up. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "We got lucky to have captured an outburst from the black hole during our observing campaign,"...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists have determined that the black hole in the middle of the Milky Way is getting ready to devour an approaching cloud of dust and gas. The researchers used a supercomputer simulation to determine that the cloud, known as G2, could possibly survive the encounter with the black hole, but its surviving mass would be torn apart and shaped differently. They came up with six simulations using Cosmos++ computer code, requiring more...

[ Watch the Video ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com According to a post by the European Research Media Center, the black hole in the center of our galaxy is about to meet up with a giant gas cloud in 2013. The celestial spectacle will provide astronomers with a prime front-row seat of Sagittarius A passing by a gas cloud at only 36 light-hours, or about 24 million miles. Although the distance between the two celestial objects seems far, it is extremely close in astronomical...

[ Watch the Video ] NASA said on Wednesday that the giant black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy may be consuming asteroids. They studied a cloud around the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A) using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Chandra has detected X-ray flares about once a day from the black hole for the past several years.  The flares also have been seen in infrared data from ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Researchers said asteroids...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be vaporizing and devouring asteroids, which could explain the frequent flares observed, according to astronomers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) For several years Chandra has detected X-ray flares about once a day from the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*, or "Sgr A*" for short....