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NRAO/Socorro Colloquium Series

Stefan Gillessen

MPE

A gas cloud on its way toward the Galactic Center black hole Sgr A*" ?

In 2011, we discovered a compact gas cloud (”G2”) with roughly 3 Earth masses that is falling on a near-radial orbit toward the massive black hole in the Galactic Center. The orbit is well constrained and pericenter passage is predicted for early 2014. Our data beautifully show that G2 gets tidally sheared apart due to the massive black hole's force. During the next months, we expect that in addition to the tidal effects, hydrodynamics get important, when G2 collides with the hot ambient gas around Sgr A*. Simulations show that ultimately, the cloud’s material will fall into the massive black hole. Predictions for the accretion rate and luminosity evolution, however, are very difficult due to the many unknowns. Nevertheless, this might be a unique opportunity in the next years to observe how gas feeds a massive black hole in a galactic nucleus



April 4, 2014
11:00 am

Array Operations Center Auditorium

All NRAO employees are invited to attend via video, available in Charlottesville 245, Green Bank Auditorium,  Tucson N525, and NTC 400.

Local Host: Juergen Ott

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