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Related papers: On the orientation of the Sagittarius A* system

200 papers

The center of the Milky Way hosts a massive black hole. The observational evidence for its existence is overwhelming. The compact radio source Sgr A* has been associated with a black hole since its discovery. In the last decade,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2010-02-08 S. Gillessen , F. Eisenhauer , H. Bartko , K. Dodds-Eden , T. K. Fritz , O. Pfuhl , T. Ott , R. Genzel

Future observations with next-generation large-area radio telescopes are expected to discover radio pulsars (PSRs) closely orbiting around Sagittarius~A* (Sgr~A*), the supermassive black hole (SMBH) dwelling at our Galactic Center (GC).…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-12-22 Zexin Hu , Lijing Shao , Fupeng Zhang

The images of Sagittarius A${}^*$ published by the Event Horizon Telescope (ETH) Collaboration in 2022 present features that were associated with an emission ring consistent with what is expected from an accretion disc surrounding the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-03-16 Ezequiel F. Boero , Osvaldo M. Moreschi

The hierarchical nature of galaxy formation suggests that a supermassive black hole binary could exist in our galactic center. We propose a new approach to constraining the possible orbital configuration of such a binary companion to the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-07-11 Smadar Naoz , Clifford M. Will , Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz , Aurelien Hees , Andrea M. Ghez , Tuan Do

Black hole event horizons, causally separating the external universe from compact regions of spacetime, are one of the most exotic predictions of General Relativity (GR). Until recently, their compact size has prevented efforts to study…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2014-11-18 Avery E. Broderick , Abraham Loeb , Ramesh Narayan

Although it is widely accepted that most galaxies have supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers^{1-3}, concrete proof has proved elusive. Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*)^4, an extremely compact radio source at the center of our Galaxy, is…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Zhi-Qiang Shen , K. Y. Lo , M. -C. Liang , Paul T. P. Ho , J. -H. Zhao

The Galactic Center black hole Sgr A* shows significant variability and flares in the submillimeter, infrared, and X-ray wavelengths. Owing to its exquisite resolution in the IR bands, the GRAVITY experiment for the first time spatially…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-08-18 David Ball , Feryal Özel , Pierre Christian , Chi-Kwan Chan , Dimitrios Psaltis

The preliminary detection of the Galactic Center black hole Sgr A* in X-rays by the Chandra mission, as well as recent mm-VLBI measurements, impose strict constraints on this source. Using a relativistic jet model for Sgr A*, we calculate…

Astrophysics · Physics 2011-05-05 Heino Falcke , Sera Markoff

Sagittarius A*, the ~4 x 10^6 solar mass black hole candidate at the Galactic Center, can be studied on Schwarzschild radius scales with (sub)millimeter wavelength Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). We report on 1.3 mm wavelength…

In 2019, Sgr A* - the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Center - underwent unprecedented flaring activity in the near infrared (NIR), brightening by up to a factor of 100 compared to quiescent values. Here we report ALMA observations…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-10-13 Lena Murchikova , Gunther Witzel

There is some evidence, though yet unconfirmed, that Sagittarius A*--the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center--emits its radio waves modulated with a ~100-day period. What is intriguing about this apparent quasi-periodicity is…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Martin Prescher , Fulvio Melia

The galactic central black hole Sgr A* exhibits outbursts of radiation in the near infrared (so-called IR flares). One model of these events consists in a hotspot orbiting on the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of the hole. These…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-20 F. H. Vincent , T. Paumard , G. Perrin , L. Mugnier , F. Eisenhauer , S. Gillessen

I review recent work that goes beyond our model for the Low-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillation of microquasars, based on the Accretion-Ejection Instability. I show that similar instabilities, which can be viewed as strongly unstable…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 Michel Tagger

The black hole in the center of the Galaxy, associated with the compact source Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is predicted to cast a shadow upon the emission of the surrounding plasma flow, which encodes the influence of general relativity in the…

Sgr A*, the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy, varies in radio through X-ray emission on hourly time scales. The flare activity is thought to arise from the innermost region of an accretion flow onto Sgr A*. We present…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 F. Yusef-Zadeh , M. Wardle , C. Heinke , C. D. Dowell , D. Roberts , F. K. Baganoff , W. D. Cotton

Large-amplitude Sgr A* near-infrared flares result from energy injection into electrons near the black hole event horizon. Astrometry data show continuous rotation of the emission region during bright flares, and corresponding rotation of…

We show that the radial profiles of the temperature and density of the electrons as well as the magnetic field strength around the massive black hole at the Galactic center, SgrA*, may be constrained directly from existing radio data…

Astrophysics · Physics 2010-10-27 Abraham Loeb , Eli Waxman

In spite of increasing evidences of the presence of a massive Black Hole at the Galactic Center, its radio counterpart, Sgr A*, shows little activity at high energies, and recent models involving energy advection (ADAF) have been proposed…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 A. Goldwurm , P. Goldoni , P. Laurent , F. Lebrun , J. Paul

We report new infrared measurements of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center, Sgr A*, over a decade that was previously inaccessible at these wavelengths. This enables a variability study that addresses variability timescales…

The emission from Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Center, shows order of magnitude variability ("flares") a few times a day that is particularly prominent in the near-infrared (NIR) and X-rays. We present a…