Abstract
Exciting new broadband observations of the galactic nucleus have placed the heart of the Milky Way under intense scrutiny in recent years. This has been due in part to the growing interest from theorists motivated to study the physics of black hole accretion, magnetized gas dynamics, and unusual star formation. The center of our Galaxy is now known to harbor the most compelling supermassive black hole candidate, weighing in at 3–4 million solar masses. Its nearby environment is comprised of a molecular dusty ring, clusters of evolved and young stars, diffuse hot gas, ionized gas streamers, and several supernova remnants. This chapter will focus on the physical makeup of this dynamic region and the feasibility of actually imaging the black hole’s shadow in the coming decade with mm interferometry.
Notes
- 1.
The heart of the Milky Way lies in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, close to the border with the neighboring constellation Scorpius. Celestial objects and features tend to be named after the constellation in which they are found, so the galactic center is said to lie in the Sagittarius A complex, and gaseous structure within it is called, for example, Sagittarius A East and Sagittarius A West.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
The ASCA Fe-line observations apparently require a temperature as high as ∼ 108 K. See Koyama et al. (1996).
References
Alexander, T. 2003, in The Galactic Black Hole: Lectures on General Relativity and Astrophysics (Bristol, UK: The Institute of Physics Publishing), 246
Allen, D. A., Hyland, A. R., & Hillier, D. J. 1990, MNRAS, 244, 706
Anantharamaiah, K. R., Pedlar, A., Ekers, R. D., & Goss, W. M. 1991, MNRAS, 249, 262
Backer, D. C. 1988, in AIP Conference Proceedings, 174, (New York: AIp), 111
Baganoff, F. K., Maeda, Y., Morris, M., Bautz, M. W., Brandt, W. N., Cui, W., Doty, J. P. et al. 2003, ApJ, 591, 891
Balick, B., & Brown, R. L. 1974, ApJ, 194, 265
Bardeen, J. M. 1974, in Gravitational Radiation and Gravitational Collapse, (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company), 132
Becklin, E. E., Gatley, I., & Werner, M. W. 1982, ApJ, 258, 135
Blaauw, A., Gum, C. S., Pawsey, J. L., & Westerhout, G. 1960, MNRAS, 121, 123
Bower, G. C., & Backer, D. C. 1998, ApJ, 496, L97
Bower, G. C., Goss, W. M., Falcke, H., Backer, D. C., & Lithwick, Y. 2006, ApJ, 648, L127
Bromley, B., Chen, K., & Miller, W. A. 1997, ApJ, 475, 57
Bromley, B., Melia, F., & Liu, S. 2001, ApJ, 555, L83
Cadez, A., Calvani, M., & Kostic, U. 2008, A&A, 487, 527
Davidson, J. A., Werner, M. W., Wu, X., Lester, D. F., Harvey, P. M., Joy, M., & Morris, M. 1992, ApJ, 387, 189
Eckart, A., & Genzel, R. 1996, Nature, 383, 415
Ekers, R. D., van Gorkom, J. H., Schwarz, U. J., & Goss, W. M. 1983, A&A, 122, 143
Falcke, H., Markoff, S., & Bower, G. C. 2009, A&A, 496, 77
Falcke, H., Melia, F., & Agol, E. 2000, ApJ, 528, L13
Fromerth, M. J., Melia, F., & Leahy, D. A. 2001, ApJ, 547, 129
Geballe, T. R., Krisciunas, K., Bailey, J. A., & Wade, R. 1991, ApJ, 370, L73
Geballe, T. R., Wade, R., Krisciunas, K., Gatley, I., & Bird, M. C. 1987, ApJ, 320, 562
Genzel, R., Thatte, N., Krabbe, A., Kroker, H., & Tacconi-Garman, L. E. 1996, ApJ, 472, 153
Gerhard, O. 2001, ApJ, 546, L39
Gezari, S., Ghez, A. M., Becklin, E. E. et al. 2002, ApJ, 576, 790
Ghez, A., Duchene, G., Matthews, K., Hornstein, S. D., Tanner, A., Larkin, J., Morris, M. et al. 2003, ApJ, 586, L127
Ghez, A., Klein, B. L., Morris, M., & Becklin, E. E. 1998, ApJ, 509, 678
Gusten, R., Genzel, R., Wright, M. C. H., Jaffe, D. T., Stutzki, J., & Harris, A. I. 1987, ApJ, 318, 124
Gwinn, C. R., Danen, R. M., Tran, T. K., Middleditch, J., & Ozernoy, L. M. 1991, ApJ, 381, L43
Hall, D. N. C., Kleinmann, S. G., & Scoville, N. Z. 1982, ApJ, 260, L53
Haller, J. W., Rieke, M. J., Rieke, G. H., Tamblyn, P., Close, L., & Melia, F. 1996, ApJ, 456, 194
Hornstein, S. D. et al. 2007, ApJ, 667, 900
Hoyle, F., & Lyttleton, R. A. 1941, MNRAS, 101, 227
Igumenshchev, I. V., & Narayan, R. 2002, ApJ, 566, 137
Jackson, J. M., Geis, N., Genzel, R., Harris, A. I., Madden, S., Poglitsch, A., Stacey, G. J., Townes, C. H. 1993, ApJ, 402, 173
Koyama, K., Maeda, Y., Sonobe, T., Takeshima, T., Tanaka, Y., & Yamauchi, S. 1996, PASJ, 48, 249
Krabbe, A., Genzel, R., Drapatz, S., & Rotaciuc, V. 1991, ApJ, 382, L19
Krichbaum, T. P. 1996, in Science with Large Millimeter Arrays (Berlin: Springer), 95
LaRosa, T. N., Kassim, N. E., & Lazio, T. J. W. 2000, AJ, 119, 207
Liu, S., & Melia, F. 2001, ApJ, 561, L77
Lo, K. Y., Cohen, M. H., Readhead, A. S. C., & Backer, D. C. 1981, ApJ, 249, 504
Lo, K. Y., & Claussen, M.J. 1983, Nature, 306, 647
Lo, K. Y., Schilizzi, R. T., Cohen, M. H., & Ross, H. N. 1985, ApJ, 202, L63
Lo, K. Y., Shen, Z.-Q., Zhao, J.-H., & Ho, P. T. P. 1998, ApJ, 508, L61
Lynden-Bell, D., & Rees, M. J. 1971, MNRAS, 152, 461
Maeda, Y., Baganoff, F. K., Feigelson, E. D., Morris, M., Bautz, M. W., Brandt, W. N., & Burrows D. N. et al. 2002, ApJ, 570, 671
McGinn, M. T., Sellgren, K., Becklin, E. E., & Hall, D. N. B. 1989, ApJ, 338, 824
Melia, F. 2003, The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
Melia, F. 1994, ApJ, 426, 577
Morris, M. 1993, ApJ, 408, 496
Murakami, H., Koyama, K., & Maeda, Y. 2001, ApJ, 558, 687
Pedlar, A., Anantharamaiah, K. R., Ekers, R. D., Goss, W. M., van Gorkom, J. H., Schwarz, U. J., & Zhao, J.-H. 1989, ApJ, 342, 769
Quataert, E. 2002, ApJ, 575, 855
Rieke, G. H., & Rieke, M. J. 1989, ApJ, 344, L5
Rockefeller, G., Fryer, C. L., Melia, F. & Warren, M. S. 2004, ApJ, 604, 662
Romani, R., Narayan, R., & Blandford, R. 1986, MNRAS, 220, 19
Sanders, R. H., & Prendergast, K. G. 1974, ApJ, 188, 489
Schodel, R., Ott, T., Genzel, R., Hofmann, R., Lehnert, M., Eckart, A., & Mouawad, N. et al. 2002, Nature, 419, 694
Sellgren, K., McGinn, M. T., Becklin, E. E., & Hall, D. N. 1990, ApJ, 359, 112
Serabyn, E., & Morris, M. 1996, Nature, 382, 602
Shvartsman, V. F. 1971, Soviet Astronomy, 15, 37
Snowden, S. L., Egger, R., Freyberg, M. J., McCammon, D., Plucinsky, P. P., Sanders, W. T., Schmitt, J. H. M., Truemper, J., & Voges, W. 1997, ApJ, 485, 125
Tagger, M., & Melia, F. 2006, ApJ, 636, L33
Tanaka, Y., Koyama, K., Maeda, Y., & Sonobe, T. 2000, PASJ, 52, L25
Trap, G. et al. 2010, Adv Space Res, 45, 507
Wang, Q. D., Gotthelf, E. V., & Lang, C. C. 2002, Nature, 415, 148
Yusef-Zadeh, F., & Morris, M. 1987, ApJ, 320, 545
Yusef-Zadeh, F., Morris, M., & Chance, D. 1984, Nature, 310, 557
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Melia, F. (2013). The Galactic Nucleus. In: Oswalt, T.D., Gilmore, G. (eds) Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5612-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5612-0_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5611-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5612-0
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics