Tag: Sagittarius A*

Journey to the Center

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As I’ve said before, the most powerful, most energetic, most intense processes happen in the center.  The gravitational center of the Earth, the Sun, and the galaxy are all places where temperature, pressure, and interactions of matter and energy are pushed to their limits.  When you look up to the sky it’s easy to see the Milky Way (unless you live in an urban center).  Do you ever wonder where the middle of it is? Where that supermassive black hole lies? Astronomers know where it is, but you need infrared cameras to see it past the thick dust that blocks...

Best View Yet of Gas Cloud Passing Milky Way Black Hole

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A few months ago I talked about Astronomers seeing the gas cloud known as G2 passing the central black hole of the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A*, and how we had hoped to watch the black hole destroy it in order to learn about the behaviour of supermassive black holes.  As we all sat and watched the passage of the cloud over the course of a few months, we were surprised to find that the cloud remained intact and passed straight by Sag A*.  When we last checked in, the leading theory was that the ‘cloud’ actually was a dense...