This artist’s concept portrays the Milky Way‘s black hole. This supermassive black hole sits at the core of our galaxy and goes by the name of 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 … Read more
After losing his Pacific Palisades neighborhood in the fires that swept through Los Angeles in January, Kent Tobiska, the CEO and chief scientist at Space Environment Technologies, is reconsidering a part of his work. Specifically, he’s rethinking the danger posed by geomagnetic storms. Instead of worrying only about rare storms like the 1859 Carrington event, … Read more
It’s been a busy year on the sun, as it officially entered the peak of its roughly 11-year cycle of activity, known as solar maximum. In 2024, the sun launched over 50 X-class solar flares — the most powerful type of solar flare — at Earth. Solar flares are categorized by the level of X-rays … Read more