Fact Sheet
Hiding a Black Hole
The supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy lies behind dense clouds of gas and dust. The center of the galaxy is a little above the "spout" of the teapot-shaped constellation Sagittarius at the upper right of this photograph. It's about 27,000 light-years away. Recent observations show that the black hole occasionally produces flares of energy, perhaps caused by its complex magnetic field. [Credit: Akira Fujii]
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