Webb Reveals Rapid-Fire Light Show From Milky Way's Central Black Hole

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Caption

This artist’s concept portrays the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A* (A-star). It’s surrounded by a swirling accretion disk of hot gas. The black hole’s gravity bends light from the far side of the disk, making it appear to wrap above and below the black hole.

Several flaring hot spots that resemble solar flares, but on a more energetic scale, are seen in the disk. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected both bright flares and fainter flickers coming from Sagittarius A*. The flickers are so rapid they must originate very close to the black hole.

Credits

Illustration

NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

See the actual video of observations.   Check it out

Caption

This timelapse video compresses about 9 hours of infrared observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into 30 seconds. Webb observed the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A* (A-star). Webb detected both faint flickers and brighter flares (one of which is seen near the end of the video). These brightness fluctuations may originate from two different processes.

The apparent change in size of the central light source is an instrumental effect. The black hole’s accretion disk is less than one pixel in size in the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) images used to create this movie. The images combine data at wavelengths of 2.1 and 4.8 microns.

Credits

Video

NASA, ESA, CSA, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern), Howard Bushouse (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Full story here!

Sky Guy in VA

JWST Finds the Smallest Asteroids Ever Seen in the Main Belt

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This is GREAT NEWS for planetary defense!!!

Read all about it here.

Sky Guy in VA

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE WILL STUDY ASTEROID 2024 YR4

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JWST SCIENCE INSTRUMENTS

CREDIT: ESA

Read how JWST is helping to learn more about Asteroid 2024 YR4.

Skly Guy in VA

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! SAY HELLO TO THE GODDESS OF LOVE!

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No missing Venus in the night sky, especially on Feb. 14, 2025, when it will be at its brightest. Time to look for your Venusian shadow! (WTOP/Greg Redfern)

While you are enjoying Valentine’s Day, be sure to say hello to the Goddess of Love, the planet Venus, high and super bright in the southwestern sky.

If you are in a dark sky site while looking, use a white sheet or piece of white cardboard, even a white colored car, to try and see your shadow being cast by the light of Venus! Today she is at greatest brilliancy and can actually cast your shadow as a result.

Put your car or material so it faces Venus. If you can see the light of Venus on your object, turn your back to Venus and move so you are centered. Use your smartphone/camera to take a pic and check the results. If clear, I will be doing the same myself.

Sky Guy in VA

COMETS, ANYONE?

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Caption: This gallery contains 74 images of different star systems with cometary belts (known as “exocomets”) taken with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter (ALMA) radio telescope facilities. The stars in this study range in ages from very young to middle-aged like our Sun. This new study shows how comets play a role in the formation of stars and planetary systems.

Credit: Luca Matra

There are TRILLIONS OF COMETS - dirty, icy snowballs in all shapes and sizes - left over from the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago located in the deep, dark outer limits of our solar system in the Oort Cloud.

Astronomers have discovered "exocomets" - comets outside of our solar system - are quite common. From the news release: "New research has "This result reveals regions around 74 stars spanning a wide range of ages – from those recently formed to others billions of years old – showing how comets play a role in the formation of stars and planetary systems."

Sky Guy in Snowy VA

THE FULL SNOW MOON LIVING UP TO ITS NAME

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Well, the Full Snow Moon   https://www.farmersalmanac.com/february-full-snow-moon  , is certainly living up to its name here in the DMV and East Coast as we are in a full blown winter storm forecast with plenty of snow expected. 

Each month’s Full Moon is given a name that corresponds to the characteristics of the month https://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names-traditional-and-alternative  and the Full Snow Moon occurs tomorrow morning, February 12th, at 8:53 a.m. EST https://youtu.be/3Vt-wO-Wzbs?list=PLcwd1eS7Gpr5_Ran7WAUSPdz0DbVmrQ-a . Our weather is forecast to be cloudy until Thursday https://wtop.com/10-day-weather-forecast-in-washington-dc/ so hopefully we can see an almost Full Moon illuminating any snow that remains.

When looking at the Moon, be aware that two spacecraft are headed to the Moon which were launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 last month https://wtop.com/national/2025/01/two-private-lunar-landers-head-toward-the-moon-in-a-roundabout-journey/ . One will attempt a lunar landing next month while the other mission is looking towards a May-June landing attempt.

On Valentine’s Day - February 14th - be on the lookout in the western horizon as it gets dark after sunset for the Zodiacal Light https://youtu.be/tY1-UJAbPcY?list=PLcwd1eS7Gpr5_Ran7WAUSPdz0DbVmrQ-a . You will need a dark sky site to see it. It should be visible for weeks.

Oh, and while you are enjoying Valentine’s Day, be sure to say hello to the Goddess of Love - the planet Venus - high and super bright in the southwestern sky https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/venus-brightest-greatest-brilliancy-greatest-illuminated-extent-2/ . 

If you are in a dark sky site while looking, use a white sheet or piece of white cardboard - even a white colored car - to try and see your shadow being cast by the light of Venus! Today she is at greatest brilliancy and can actually cast your shadow as a result. Put your car or material so it faces Venus. If you can see the light of Venus on your object, turn your back to Venus and move so you are centered. Use your smartphone/camera to take a pic and check the results. If clear, I will be doing the same myself.

You can get more on the month’s sky happenings here https://wtop.com/the-space-place/2025/02/whats-up-in-the-sky-february-2025-lineup-of-planets-eye-catching-alignments/ .

Follow Greg Redfern on Facebook, Bluesky and his daily blog to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration.

Sky Guy in SNOWY VA

Astronomers find Einstein ring a “stone’s throw” away from Earth

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    The ring of light surrounding the centre of the galaxy NGC 6505, captured by ESA’s Euclid telescope, is a stunning example of an Einstein ring. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, T. Li CC BY-SA.

This is a BIG discovery by European Space Agency's Euclid Space Telescope: "Euclid launched on 1 July, 2023, beginning a 6-year mission to study dark matter, dark energy and gravity. One of its goals is to create a 3D map of the large-scale structure of the universe by observing billions of galaxies across more than a third of the sky."

Get all the details and explanations here.

Sky Guy in VA