• Back in September of 2013, the Chandra X-Ray space observatory recorded an X-ray flare from the center of the Milky Way's black hole (a vortex known as Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*) that was 400 times brighter than the energy usually emitted from the area.
  • What caused the outburst from the usually quiet region of our galaxy? NASA has two theories. First is that an asteroid wandered too close to the black hole and got ripped apart by the hole's extreme gravitational force.
  • The second theory about the burst is that the lines of magnetic energy contained in the gas flowing into Sgr A* got tangled and released the X-rays. NASA says that the pattern observed is similar to those found in such types of flares observed from our sun.

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