Outburst from Milky Way's black hole detected

Washington, Jan 6: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed the largest flare detected from a super-massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The super-massive black hole is called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) and is estimated to contain about 4.5 million times the mass of our sun. Astronomers made the unexpected discovery while using Chandra to observe how Sgr A* would react to a nearby cloud of gas known as G2. "Unfortunately, the G2 gas cloud didn't produce the fireworks we were hoping for when it got close to Sgr A*. However, nature often surprises us and we saw something else that was really exciting," said lead researcher Daryl Haggard from Amherst College in Massachusetts. Astronomers estimate that G2 was closest to the black hole in the spring of 2014 - 15 billion miles away. The Chandra flare observed in September 2013 was about a hundred times closer to the black hole, making the event unlikely related to G2.