Chandra X-ray Observatory and New Visions of the Center of Our Galaxy
Dr. Frederick Baganoff
Fri Jan 15, 03-03:45pm, NE80-6035, 6th floor in building NE80
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Prereq: none
A new generation of telescopes and instruments have revealed the core of the Milky Way in spectacular detail. Ground-based telescopes have traced the path of a star that passed within just 17 light-hours of the dark massive object at the center of the galaxy. An analysis of the star's motion indicates that the dark object has a mass of about 3.7 millions suns, and provides the strongest evidence to date for the existence of a supermassive black hole. The new observations have revealed fantastic images of the interactions between giant molecular clouds, expanding supernova blast waves, and stellar winds from clusters of hot young stars that are frantically blowing off their outer atmospheres.
I will also describe Chandra X-ray Observatory; the tour of its Operation Center will immediately follow the lecture.
Contact: Gregory Prigozhin, 37-561, x3-7246, gyp@space.mit.edu
Sponsor: Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research
Latest update: 18-Dec-2009
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