The longest X-ray look yet at the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center has given astronomers unprecedented access to its life and times. The new data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed that our galaxy’s central black hole is a frequent bad actor, prone to numerous outbursts and occasional large explosions.
Chaos can explain the seemingly random behavior of two moons of Saturn, JPL researchers say. The moons — Pandora and Prometheus — are more than 100,000 miles off course of where they would be if their orbits followed conventional physics. “With chaotic interactions, a barely perceptible difference in starting conditions can make such a great difference in later positions that the movements are not fully predictable over time. The two moons give each other a gravitational kick each time Pandora passes inside Prometheus, about every 28 days. Because neither’s orbit is quite circular, the distance between them on those occasions — hence the strength of the kick — varies.”