A compact gas cloud G2 is predicted to reach the pericenter of its orbit around the super massive black hole (SMBH) of our galaxy, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). This event will give us a rare opportunity to observe the interaction between SMBH and gas around it. We report the result of the fully three-dimensional simulation of the evolution of G2 during the first pericenter passage. The strong tidal force by the SMBH stretches the cloud along its orbit, and compresses it strongly in the vertical direction, resulting in the heating up and flaring up of the cloud. The bolometric luminosity will reach the maximum of ∼100L⊙. This flare should be easily observed in the near infrared.
@article{arxiv.1212.0349,
title = {Flaring up of the Compact Cloud G2 during the Close Encounter with Sgr A*},
author = {Takayuki R. Saitoh and Junichiro Makino and Yoshiharu Asaki and Junichi Baba and Shinya Komugi and Makoto Miyoshi and Tohru Nagao and Masaaki Takahashi and Takaaki Takeda and Masato Tsuboi and Ken-ichi Wakamatsu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.0349},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ. Animation movie and stereograms are available at http://v1.jmlab.jp/~saitoh/G2/