Powerful Milky Way stellar flares near black hole could refine galaxy center models

Deep in the frozen heart of Antarctica, the South Pole Telescope has been watching one of the most extreme neighborhoods in our galaxy, and it’s just caught something extraordinary happening there. Astronomers have detected powerful stellar flares erupting from stars near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. These aren’t your average stellar flares, we’re talking about energy releases so intense they make our sun’s most dramatic outbursts look like flickering candles.