Sagittarius A

Starbox begin
name= Sagittarius AStarbox astrometry
radial_v=46
prop_mo_ra=
prop_mo_dec=
gal_lat=+00.147
gal_lon=000.064
parallax=
p_error=
absmag_v= Starbox detail
mass=3.7 million
radius=?
luminosity=?
temperature=?
metal=?
gravity=?
rotation=?
age=? Starbox catalog
names= AX J1745.6-2900, SAGITTARIUS A, W 24, Cul 1742-28, SGR A, [DGW65] 96, EQ 1742-28, RORF 1742-289, [SKM2002] 28. Starbox reference
Simbad=Sagittarius+A

Sagittarius A (or Sgr A) is a complex radio source at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is located in the sky in the Sagittarius constellation. It is hidden from view at optical wavelengths by large clouds of cosmic dust in the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

It consists of three components, the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East, the spiral structure Sagittarius A West, and a very bright compact radio source at the center of the spiral, Sagittarius A*. These three overl

agittarius A East

This feature is approximately 25 light-years in width and has the attributes of a supernova remnant from an explosive event that occurred 10,000 to 100,000 years ago. However, it would take 50 to 100 times more energy than a standard supernova explosion to create a structure of this size and energy. It is conjectured that Sgr A East is the remnant of the explosion of a star that was gravitationally compressed as it made a close approach to the central black hole.

agittarius A West

Sgr A West has the appearance of a three-arm spiral, and is for this reason also known as the "Minispiral". This appearance and nickname are misleading, though: the three-dimensional structure of the Minispiral is "not" that of a spiral. It is made of several dust and gas clouds, which orbit Sagittarius A* and fall onto it at velocities as high as 1000 kilometers per second. The surface layer of these clouds is ionized. The source of ionisation is the population of massive stars (more than one hundred OB stars have been identified so far) that also occupy the central parsec.

Sgr A West is surrounded by a massive, clumpy torus of cooler molecular gas, the Circumnuclear Disk (CND). The nature and kinematics of the Northern Arm cloud of Sgr A West suggest that it once was a clump in the CND, which fell due to some perturbation, perhaps the supernova explosion responsible for Sgr A East. The Northern Arm appears as a very bright North—South ridge of emission, but it extends far to the East and can be detected as a dim extended source.

The Western Arc (outside the field of view of the image shown in the right) is interpreted as the ionized inner surface of the CND. The Eastern Arm and the Bar seem to be two additional large clouds similar to the Northern Arm, although they do not share the same orbital plane. They have been estimated to amount for about 20 solar masses each.

On top of these large scale structures (of the order of a few light-years in size), many smaller cloudlets and holes inside the large clouds can be seen. The most prominent of these perturbations is the Minicavity which is interpreted as a bubble blown inside the Northern Arm by the stellar wind of a massive star, which is not clearly identified.

agittarius A*

Many astronomers believe that there is evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Sagittarius A* (abbreviated Sgr A*) is agreed to be the most plausible candidate for the location of this supermassive black hole. The Very Large Telescope and Keck Telescope detected stars orbiting Sgr A* at speeds greater than that of any other stars in our galaxy. One star, designated S2, was calculated to orbit Sgr A* at speeds of over 5000 kilometers per second.

References

* Fulvio Melia, The Black Hole in the Center of Our Galaxy, Princeton U Press, 2003

External links

* [http://www.mpe.mpg.de/www_ir/ir_recent.php Recent Results of the MPE Infrared/Submillimeter Group]
* [http://www.mpe.mpg.de/www_ir/GC/index.html Galactic Center Research at MPE]
* [http://www.nature.com/nature/links/021017/021017-5.html "Nature" report, with link to the Schödel et al. paper]
* [http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/sgr_a/index.html Sagittarius A East]
* [http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0405197 Kinematic and structural analysis of the Minispiral in the Galactic Center from BEAR spectro-imagery (preprint)]
* [http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/0203long/index.html Chandra Photo Album Sagittarius A]
* [http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Bima/GalCntr.html The Galactic Center (outdated)]