The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is unpredictable and chaotic

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It’s vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.”-“> NASANeil Geirels Swift Observatory, Earth-orbiting satellite dedicated to detecting gamma-ray bursts. The Swift Observatory has been observing gamma rays from the black hole since 2006. Analysis of the data shows high levels of activity from 2006 to 2008, with a sharp decline in activity over the next four years. After 2012, the frequency of flares increased again – the researchers had a hard time distinguishing the patterns.

In the next few years, the team of astronomers hope to gather enough data to be able to rule out whether the flare difference from Sagittarius A* is due to a gas cloud or passing star, or if something else could explain the irregular activity observed from the central black hole. in our galaxy.

“The long data set from the Swift Observatory did not happen by accident,” said co-author and former supervisor of Andrés, Dr Nathalie Degenaar, also at the University of Amsterdam. His request for this particular measurement from the Swift satellite was approved when he was a doctoral student. “Since then, I have applied for more monitoring time on a regular basis. This is a very specialized monitoring program that allows us to do a lot of research.”

Co-authored by Dr. Jacob van den Igenden, or