Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2000-01-11
Science, Vol. 287, 7 January 2000
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
26 pages (text only); see the published article with ten figures under Science Online Article http://www.physics.nwu.edu/resea
Scientific paper
The region bounded by the inner tens of light years at the center of the Milky Way contains five principal components that coexist within the central deep gravitational potential well. These constituents are a black hole candidate (Sgr~A*) with a mass equivalent to $2.6\pm0.2\times 10^6$ suns, a surrounding cluster of evolved stars, a complex of young stars, molecular and ionized gas clouds, and a powerful supernova-like remnant. The interaction of these components is responsible for many of the phenomena occurring in this complex and unique portion of the Galaxy. Developing a consistent picture of the primary interactions between the components at the Galactic Center will improve our understanding of the nature of galactic nuclei in general, and will provide with a better defined set of characteristics of black holes. For example, the accretion of stellar winds by Sgr A* appears to produce far less radiation than indicated by estimates based on models of galactic nuclei.
Melia Fulvio
Wardle Mark
Yusef-Zade F.
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