Baltimore, United States - February 17, 2025 Credit: Farhad Yusef-Zadeh/Northwestern University The supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is putting on a relentless display of flickers and flares, according to new observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A team of astrophysicists led by Northwestern University captured the longest and most detailed look yet at Sagittarius A*, the void lurking at the center of our galaxy. Their findings reveal a swirling disk of gas and dust erupting in continuous bursts—some brief and faint, others blindingly bright. These flares, appearing at random intervals from seconds to months, suggest an unceasing cycle of activity. “This black hole never settles down,” said lead researcher Farhad Yusef-Zadeh. “Every time we observed it, something different happened.” Scientists believe the flickers stem from minor disturbances in the black hole’s accretion disk, while the larger flares may be caused by powerful magnetic reconnection events—similar to solar flares but on a much more extreme scale. With hopes of uncovering deeper insights, researchers plan to conduct an uninterrupted 24-hour observation of Sagittarius A*. Their goal: to determine whether these eruptions follow a pattern or remain an unpredictable cosmic phenomenon.