New Visions of the Center of Our Galaxy
Frederik K. Baganoff
Tue Jan 17, 02:30-03:00pm, Marlar: 37-252
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
A new generation of telescopes and instruments have revealed the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way, in spectacular detail. On the smallest scales, ground-based infrared telescopes -- using adaptive optics to correct for atmospheric distortion -- have traced the path of a star that passed within just 17 light-hours or 11 billion miles of the dark massive object at the dynamical 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. X-ray observations from space have detected massive flares from just outside the event horizon of the black hole. Observatories around the world are trying to monitor these flares across the electromagnetic spectrum to measure the physical properties of the hot, highly magnetized plasma on which the black hole feeds.
Web: http://space.mit.edu/home/nss/iap2012/iap_activities_2012.html
Contact: Norbert S. Schulz, NE80-6075, (617) 258-5767, nss@space.mit.edu
Sponsor: Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research
Latest update: 09-Dec-2011
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