At the Center of the Milky Way
At the center of our
Milky
Way Galaxy lies a black hole with
over 2 million times the mass of the Sun.
Once a controversial claim, this
astounding conclusion
is now virtually inescapable and based on observations of
stars orbiting
very near the galactic center.
Using one of the Paranal
Observatory's very large telescopes
and the sophisticated infrared camera
NACO,
astronomers
patiently followed the orbit of a particular star,
designated S2, as it came within about 17 light-hours of the
center of the Milky Way
(17 light-hours is only about 3 times the radius of Pluto's orbit).
Their
results convincingly show that
S2 is moving
under the influence of the enormous gravity of an
unseen object which must be extremely compact -- a
supermassive black hole.
This deep NACO
near-infrared image shows the crowded inner 2
light-years of the Milky Way with the exact position of the
galactic center indicated by arrows.
NACO's ability to track stars so close to the
galactic center
can accurately
measure the black hole's mass and perhaps
even provide an unprecedented test of Einstein's
theory of gravity
as astronomers watch a star orbit a
supermassive black hole.