James Webb

The disk of hot plasma surrounding Sagittarius A* – the Milky Way’s central black hole – constantly flickers and bubbles, as shown in this artist’s illustration. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralph Crawford (STScI)

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is not resting – it is constantly bubbling.

  • One response
Long-term James Webb observations reveal dynamic changes in the plasma disk surrounding Sagittarius A*
WEAVE data are superimposed on an image from the Stephen Quintet's James Webb Space Telescope, with green contours showing data from the LOFAR radio telescope. The orange and blue colors follow the hydrogen-alpha luminosity measured by WEAVE LIFU, which shows where the intergalactic gas is ionizing. The hexagon marks WEAVE's observational coverage, 36 kilofarsecs wide (similar to the width of the Milky Way). Credit: University of Hertfordshire.

A galactic collision at a speed of 3.2 million km/h has been documented in great detail

  • One response
The dramatic event took place in the Stefan Quintet group, a galactic group that has been studied for nearly 150 years. The collision created a powerful shock wave, described as "like the supersonic boom of a fighter jet," one of the most impressive energetic processes