Galactic Centre
The Galactic Centre (or Galactic Center) is the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy.
It is a supermassive black hole of 4,100 ± 0.034 million solar masses. It powers the compact radio source Sagittarius A*.[1][2][3][4]
It is 8 ± 0.4 kiloparsecs (26,100 ± 1,300 ly) away from Earth[5] in the direction of the constellations Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius where the Milky Way appears brightest.
Baade's window
Walter Baade searched for the centre of the Milky Way galaxy in the mid-1940s. He used the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in California.
Up until then the structure and position of the galactic center was not known for sure.[6]
In 2006, the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS) conducted a survey of 180,000 stars for seven days. The objective was to detect extrasolar planets by the transit method.[7]
OGLE and other observation programs have successfully detected extrasolar planets orbiting around central bulge stars in this area by the gravitational microlensing method.
Galactic Centre Media
Marked location of the Galactic Center.
A starchart of the night sky towards the Galactic Center.
This pan video gives a closer look at a huge image of the central parts of the Milky Way made by combining thousands of images from ESO's VISTA telescope on Paranal in Chile and compares it with the view in visible light. Because VISTA has a camera sensitive to infrared light, it can see through much of the dust blocking the view in visible light, although many more opaque dust filaments still show up well in this picture.
Animation of a barred galaxy like the Milky Way showing the presence of an X-shaped bulge. The X-shape extends to about one half of the bar radius. It is directly visible when the bar is seen from the side, but when the viewer is close to the long axis of the bar it cannot be seen directly and its presence can only be inferred from the distribution of brightnesses of stars along a given direction.
The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope.
A small portion of a gigapixel color mosaic of the Milky Way's heart.
White Dwarfs in Milky Way's Central Hub.
References
- ↑ "Scientists find proof a black hole is lurking at the centre of our galaxy" (in en-GB). Metro. 2018-10-31. https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/31/scientists-find-proof-a-supermassive-black-hole-is-lurking-at-the-centre-of-the-milky-way-8092994/. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
- ↑ "A 'mind-boggling' telescope observation has revealed the point of no return for our galaxy's monster black hole". The Middletown Press. 2018-10-31. https://www.middletownpress.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Supermassive-black-holes-gorge-themselves-on-a-7971243.php. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
- ↑ Plait, Phil (2018-11-08). "Astronomers see material orbiting a black hole *right* at the edge of forever". Syfy Wire. Archived from the original on 10 November 2018.
- ↑ Henderson, Mark (2009-12-09). Astronomers confirm black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Archived from the original on 2008-12-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20081216235509/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5316001.ece. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ↑ Gillessen, S.; Eisenhauer, F.; Fritz, T.K.; Pfuhl, O.; Genzel, R. (2013). "The distance to the Galactic Center". Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, Volume 289. 8: 29–35. Bibcode:2013IAUS..289...29G. doi:10.1017/S1743921312021060.
- ↑ Baade W. (August 1946). "A search for the nucleus of our galaxy". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 58 (343): 249–252. Bibcode:1946PASP...58..249B. doi:10.1086/125835.
- ↑ "SIMBAD Details on Acronym: SWEEPS". SIMBAD. Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2009-05-21.