NASA's telescope captured "cosmic fireworks". Photo

Astronomers have spotted flashes and echoes coming from a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. These "cosmic fireworks" and X-ray echoes may help scientists better understand the dark and quiet cosmic titan around which our galaxy revolves.

A team of researchers from Michigan State University made the groundbreaking discovery by analyzing decades of data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The team identified nine large flares originating from Sgr A* that have been recorded by NuSTAR, which has been observing the cosmos in X-rays since July 2012. Previously, astronomers had missed these signals, writes Space.

"We are sitting in the front row to watch this unique cosmic fireworks display at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. Both torches and fireworks light up the darkness and help us observe things we wouldn't normally be able to see," said team leader Sho Zhang, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University.

He added that astronomers need to know when and where these flares occur so they can study the black hole environment using this light.

Supermassive black holes, such as Sgr A*, are thought to exist at the heart of all large galaxies. Like all black holes, supermassive black holes with masses equivalent to millions or sometimes billions of suns are surrounded by an outer boundary called the event horizon. This marks the point at which the gravitational pull of the black hole becomes so intense that even light is not fast enough to match its escape velocity.

This means that the event horizon acts as a one-sided light-trapping surface beyond which it is impossible to see. Thus, black holes are virtually invisible, detectable only by the effect they have on the matter around them - which, in the case of supermassive black holes, can be catastrophic.

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