Question 1

True or false: Sagittarius A* is located at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Accepted Answer

True. It's the supermassive black hole at the exact center of our galaxy, about 26,000 light-years away.

Question 2

True or false: Sagittarius A* will eventually swallow the entire solar system.

Accepted Answer

False. It's too far away (26,000 light-years) and not moving toward us; our orbit is stable for billions of years.

Question 3

True or false: Sagittarius A* is so massive that it contains the mass of over 4 million suns.

Accepted Answer

True. Yes, its estimated mass is about 4.3 million solar masses, making it a supermassive black hole.

Question 4

True or false: Sagittarius A* is the brightest object in the night sky.

Accepted Answer

False. It's invisible to the naked eye and not even the brightest radio source; the Moon and planets outshine it.

Question 5

True or false: Sagittarius A* occasionally flares in X-ray and infrared light due to material falling in.

Accepted Answer

True. Observations show daily flares from hot gas swirling near the event horizon, lasting minutes to hours.

Question 6

True or false: Sagittarius A* was first photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990.

Accepted Answer

False. The first image was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2022, not Hubble, due to dust blocking visible light.

Question 7

True or false: Sagittarius A* is a rapidly spinning black hole, rotating near the speed of light.

Accepted Answer

True. Studies suggest its spin parameter is about 0.9, meaning it rotates extremely fast, close to the theoretical limit.

Question 8

True or false: Sagittarius A* is actively pulling in stars and gas from across the galaxy.

Accepted Answer

False. Its gravitational influence is strong only within a few light-years; stars far away orbit normally.

Sagittarius A* Trivia Questions