Universe  ID: 11149

Galactic Snacks

Story by Kathryn Hansen Released on December 18, 2012
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The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy devours a snack.
Even black holes grab a meal now and then, feeding on everything from planets and asteroids to comets and gas. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy has a relatively small appetite. Nevertheless, scientists using NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) orbiting observatory caught our galaxy's central black hole in the act of devouring a snack. In July 2012, detection of a high-energy X-ray flare indicated that something—possibly an asteroid—was being torn apart and ingested at a temperature of about 100 million degrees Celsius. Watch the video to see the flare, and to find out how NuSTAR's crisp vision is improving our understanding of the high-energy phenomena and the diet of black holes.
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Sagittarrius A*, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, emits an x-ray flare indicating the ingestion of some kind of galactic matter.
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Asteroids might be a popular snack for supermassive black holes, but the exact nature of their diet has yet to be revealed.
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The Milky Way, shown here as an artist's concept, is home to Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center.
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The bright white dot (left) is hot material close to the black hole; the time series (right) shows the flare seen over a period of two days.
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NuSTAR's crisp vision is evident in this view of Cygnus X-1, a lower-mass black hole in the Milky Way about 6,000 light-years from Earth.
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NuSTAR is the only telescope capable of producing focused images of the highest-energy X-rays emitted by dying stars and hungry black holes.

For More Information

Science@NASA

Story Credits

Lead Writer:
Kathryn Hansen (Wyle Information Systems)

Please give credit for this item to:
Science@NASA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Tour of Sagittarius A* animation courtesy of NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
Milky Way Galaxy illustration courtesy of NASA JPL
High-energy X-ray time series of the black hole courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
NuSTAR's first view of high-energy X-Ray Universe courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
Artist's concept of NuSTAR orbiting Earth courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11149

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Universe