Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

By Stacy Palen

Sgr A* is flaring to twice peak historical levels, possibly because of gravitational disturbance from S0-2. This particular article from Vice News provides a good opportunity to help students see when they are being “click-baited,” since “Nobody Knows Why” is a bit of a tease. There are actually several explanations for why this might happen, as the article later explains.

1) “Flux” may be a new vocabulary word, particularly in this context. Look it up and summarize the definition that is relevant to this article in your own words.

Flux is the light emitted per second per square meter.

2) The article states that we have been monitoring Sgr-A* for about 20 years. What technological improvements made a monitoring campaign like this one possible?

We needed to be able to observe in the infrared at high enough resolution to avoid confusion of sources in this tightly packed region of the Galaxy.

3) What possible causes for the flare are given in the article?

A close pass of SO-2 may have disturbed the gas near the black hole. We may be seeing a delayed reaction from a dust cloud that passed by and was torn apart.

4) Notice the article’s title: “…and Nobody Knows Why”. Do you think that this is an accurate characterization of what astronomers know about this flare? Why do you think the article’s title was written in this way?

Answers will vary for the first question; the second answer should include something about baiting people to click on the story.