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Sagittarius A*
Sagittarius A* was first discovered in February 1974, by astronomers Bruce Balick and Robert Brown. While this discovery was not deemed revolutionary at the time, it would take until 2008 for all other possibilities to be ruled out.
In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal by team leader Reinhard Genzel, had the best confirmed evidence of the existence of supermassive black holes.
The black hole is so huge, it is approximated to have the same mass as 4.3 million Suns. But there are examples of our universe that are the equivalent of billions. Holm 15A* is one of the largest known, at 40 billion solar masses.
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The Flash
It is a relatively quiet black hole, and it also is not an active nucleus, as it doesn't spew light and heat into surrounding space. The fluctuations in it's brightness on a good day are minimal at best.
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Island Origins
Tuan Do, an astronomer at the University of California first made the discovery of the 'flash' of light from Sgr A*. Using the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii, they observed the flash that occurred over ~2 hours, but was condensed into a several second time-lapse for visual sake.
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Did You Know?
Black Holes don't emit any radiation by themselves, at least that we can detect with out current instruments. What we are detecting is how the gravitational forces from the black hole, act on objects around it, causing an immense amount of friction, and from that, radiation.
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So Where's the Flash From?
Scientists believe, after looking at the time lapse, that the star they first assumed to be giving off the light, called S0-2, passed in the past year closer than usual to the black hole, which caused more gas to fall into the black hole. The only way to confirm this hypothesis though is to gather a lot more data.
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They Aren't The Only Paparazzi On The Case
Fortunately, a number of other telescopes, including the Chandra, Spitzer, and ALMA, were also scanning the center of the galaxy as well, each with its own specialties and abilities to gather data. Using that data as well, scientists are hoping to piece together the different aspects of physics that are going on in and around SGr A*, and figure out exactly what it's up to.
Massive Glow Emanating From Super Black Hole Has Scientists Baffled
Sagitarius A*, denoted Sgr A*, is a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Suddenly, scientists noticed it was glowing 75 times brighter than normal. So much so, that they mistook it initially for a nearby star. The brightness was only momentary, as it returned back to its normal state. But the event has scientists excited and baffled.
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