Unveiling the Supermassive Black Hole at the Milky Way’s Core
|Grace Sanger-Johnson, a postbaccalaureate researcher at MSU, discovered nine previously undetected X-ray flares from Sagittarius A* by meticulously analyzing ten years of data. These flares are high-energy bursts that illuminate the immediate vicinity of the black hole, an area typically shrouded in darkness due to the immense gravitational pull that even light cannot escape.
We are sitting in the front row to observe these unique cosmic fireworks at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy,” said Shuo Zhang, Sanger-Johnson’s advisor. The flares provide a rare opportunity to study the black hole’s surroundings and better understand the extreme conditions present there.