” Following stars on close orbits around Sagittarius A * enables us to precisely probe the gravitational field around the closest huge black hole to Earth, to evaluate General Relativity, and to determine the homes of the great void,” describes Genzel. The new observations, integrated with the groups previous data, verify that the stars follow courses exactly as predicted by General Relativity for items moving around a black hole of mass 4.30 million times that of the Sun. This is the most accurate price quote of the mass of the Milky Ways central black hole to date. The scientists likewise managed to tweak the distance to Sagittarius A *, finding it to be 27,000 light-years away.
They made a model of how the genuine sources may look, simulated how GRAVITY would see them, and compared this simulation with GRAVITY observations. This enabled them to find and track stars around Sagittarius A * with unparalleled depth and accuracy.
And here we demonstrate that we can do that to a higher precision than ever in the past,” explains Reinhard Genzel, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany who was granted a Nobel Prize in 2020 for Sagittarius A * research. We are stunned by their quantity of detail, and by the action and number of stars they expose around the black hole,” explains Julia Stadler, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching who led the teams imaging efforts throughout her time at MPE. Le Bouquin (IPAG), P. Léna (LESIA), D. Lutz (MPE), T. Ott (MPE), T. Paumard (LESIA), K. Perraut (IPAG), G. Perrin (LESIA), O. Pfuhl (ESO and MPE), S. Rabien (MPE), G. Rodríguez-Coira (LESIA), J. Shangguan (MPE), T. Shimizu (MPE), S. Scheithauer (MPIA), J. Stadler (MPE), O. Straub (MPE), C. Straubmeier (Cologne), E. Sturm (MPE), L. J. Tacconi (MPE), K. R. W. Tristram (ESO Chile), F. Vincent (LESIA), S. von Fellenberg (MPE), F. Widmann (MPE), E. Wieprecht (MPE), E. Wiezorrek (MPE), J. Woillez (ESO), S. Yazici MPE and Cologne), and A. Young (MPE).
, Garching, Germany), M. Bauböck (MPE and Department of Physics, University of Illinois, USA), H. Bonnet (ESO), W. Brandner (MPIA), G. Bourdarot (IPAG and MPE), V. Cardoso (CENTRA and CERN), Y. Clénet (LESIA), P. T. de Zeeuw (Leiden and MPE), J. Dexter (Colorado and MPE), Y. Dallilar (MPE), A. Drescher (MPE), A. Eckart (Cologne and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany), F. Eisenhauer (MPE), T. Enßlin (MPA), N. M. Förster Schreiber (MPE), P. Garcia (Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal and CENTRA), F. Gao (Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg, Germany and MPE), E. Gendron (LESIA), R. Genzel (MPE and Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Le Conte Hall, University of California, Berkeley, USA), S. Gillessen (MPE), M. Habibi (MPE), X. Haubois (ESO Chile), G. Heißel (LESIA), T. Henning (MPIA), S. Hippler (MPIA), M. Horrobin (Cologne), A. Jiménez-Rosales (MPE), L. Jochum (ESO Chile), L. Jocou (IPAG), A. Kaufer (ESO Chile), P. Kervella (LESIA), S. Lacour (LESIA), V. Lapeyrère (LESIA), J.-B. Le Bouquin (IPAG), P. Léna (LESIA), D. Lutz (MPE), T. Ott (MPE), T. Paumard (LESIA), K. Perraut (IPAG), G. Perrin (LESIA), O. Pfuhl (ESO and MPE), S. Rabien (MPE), J. Shangguan (MPE), T. Shimizu (MPE), S. Scheithauer (MPIA), J. Stadler (MPE, O. Straub (MPE), C. Straubmeier (Cologne), E. Sturm (MPE), L.J. Tacconi (MPE), K. R. W. Tristram (ESO Chile), F. Vincent (LESIA), S. von Fellenberg (MPE), I. Waisberg (Department of Particle Physics & & Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and MPE), F. Widmann (MPE), E. Wieprecht (MPE), E. Wiezorrek (MPE), J. Woillez (ESO), S. Yazici (MPE and Cologne), A. Young (MPE) and G. Zins (ESO).
GRAVITY will be updated later on this years to GRAVITY+, which will likewise be installed on ESOs VLTI and will push the level of sensitivity further to reveal fainter stars even closer to the black hole. ESOs upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), under construction in the Chilean Atacama Desert, will further enable the group to determine the velocity of these stars with really high accuracy.
This chart shows the area of the field of view within which Sagittarius A * lives– the black hole is marked with a red circle within the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). This map reveals most of the stars visible to the unaided eye under good conditions.
References:.
” Mass circulation in the Galactic Center based on interferometric astrometry of multiple stellar orbits” by GRAVITY collaboration: R. Abuter, N. Aimar, A. Amorim, J. Ball, M. Bauböck, S. Gillessen, F. Widmann, G. Heissel, et al., 14 December 2021, Astronomy & & Astrophysics.DOI: 10.1051/ 0004-6361/2021 42465.” Deep images of the Galactic center with GRAVITY” by GRAVITY Collaboration, J. Stadler, A. Drescher, 14 December 2021, Astronomy & & Astrophysics.DOI: 10.1051/ 0004-6361/2021 42459.
More information.
The group who authored the paper “The mass distribution in the Galactic Centre from interferometric astrometry of numerous stellar orbits” is composed of: R. Abuter (European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany [ESO], A. Amorim (Universidade de Lisboa– Faculdade de Ciências, Portugal and Centro de Astrofísica e Gravitação, IST, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal [CENTRA], M. Bauböck (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany [MPE] and Department of Physics, University of Illinois, USA), J. P. Berger (Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble, France [IPAG] and ESO), H. Bonnet (ESO), G. Bourdarot (IPAG and MPE), W. Brandner (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany [MPIA], V. Cardoso (CENTRA and CERN, Genève, Switzerland), Y. Clénet (Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, Meudon, France [LESIA], Y. Dallilar (MPE), R. Davies (MPE), P. T. de Zeeuw (Sterrewacht Leiden, Leiden University [Leiden], The Netherlands and MPE), J. Dexter (Department of Astrophysical & & Planetary Sciences, JILA, Duane Physics Bldg., University of Colorado [Colorado], Boulder, USA), A. Drescher (MPE), A. Eckart (1st Institute of Physics, University of Cologne, Germany [Cologne] and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany), F. Eisenhauer (MPE), N. M. Förster Schreiber (MPE), P. Garcia (Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal and CENTRA), F. Gao (Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg, Germany and MPE), E. Gendron (LESIA), R. Genzel (MPE and Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Le Conte Hall, University of California, Berkeley, USA), S. Gillessen (MPE), M. Habibi (MPE), X. Haubois (European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile [ESO Chile], G. Heißel (LESIA), T. Henning (MPIA), S. Hippler (MPIA), M. Horrobin (Cologne), L. Jochum (ESO Chile), L. Jocou (IPAG), A. Kaufer (ESO Chile), P. Kervella (LESIA), S. Lacour (LESIA), V. Lapeyrère (LLESIA), J.-B. Le Bouquin (IPAG), P. Léna (LESIA), D. Lutz (MPE), T. Ott (MPE), T. Paumard (LESIA), K. Perraut (IPAG), G. Perrin (LESIA), O. Pfuhl (ESO and MPE), S. Rabien (MPE), G. Rodríguez-Coira (LESIA), J. Shangguan (MPE), T. Shimizu (MPE), S. Scheithauer (MPIA), J. Stadler (MPE), O. Straub (MPE), C. Straubmeier (Cologne), E. Sturm (MPE), L. J. Tacconi (MPE), K. R. W. Tristram (ESO Chile), F. Vincent (LESIA), S. von Fellenberg (MPE), F. Widmann (MPE), E. Wieprecht (MPE), E. Wiezorrek (MPE), J. Woillez (ESO), S. Yazici MPE and Cologne), and A. Young (MPE).
The team who authored the paper “Deep pictures of the Galactic Center with GRAVITY” is made up of: R. Abuter (ESO), P. Arras (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics [MPA], Garching, Germany and Department of Physics, Technical University Munich [TUM], Garching, Germany), M. Bauböck (MPE and Department of Physics, University of Illinois, USA), H. Bonnet (ESO), W. Brandner (MPIA), G. Bourdarot (IPAG and MPE), V. Cardoso (CENTRA and CERN), Y. Clénet (LESIA), P. T. de Zeeuw (Leiden and MPE), J. Dexter (Colorado and MPE), Y. Dallilar (MPE), A. Drescher (MPE), A. Eckart (Cologne and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany), F. Eisenhauer (MPE), T. Enßlin (MPA), N. M. Förster Schreiber (MPE), P. Garcia (Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal and CENTRA), F. Gao (Hamburger Sternwarte, Universität Hamburg, Germany and MPE), E. Gendron (LESIA), R. Genzel (MPE and Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Le Conte Hall, University of California, Berkeley, USA), S. Gillessen (MPE), M. Habibi (MPE), X. Haubois (ESO Chile), G. Heißel (LESIA), T. Henning (MPIA), S. Hippler (MPIA), M. Horrobin (Cologne), A. Jiménez-Rosales (MPE), L. Jochum (ESO Chile), L. Jocou (IPAG), A. Kaufer (ESO Chile), P. Kervella (LESIA), S. Lacour (LESIA), V. Lapeyrère (LESIA), J.-B. Le Bouquin (IPAG), P. Léna (LESIA), D. Lutz (MPE), T. Ott (MPE), T. Paumard (LESIA), K. Perraut (IPAG), G. Perrin (LESIA), O. Pfuhl (ESO and MPE), S. Rabien (MPE), J. Shangguan (MPE), T. Shimizu (MPE), S. Scheithauer (MPIA), J. Stadler (MPE, O. Straub (MPE), C. Straubmeier (Cologne), E. Sturm (MPE), L.J. Tacconi (MPE), K. R. W. Tristram (ESO Chile), F. Vincent (LESIA), S. von Fellenberg (MPE), I. Waisberg (Department of Particle Physics & & Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and MPE), F. Widmann (MPE), E. Wieprecht (MPE), E. Wiezorrek (MPE), J. Woillez (ESO), S. Yazici (MPE and Cologne), A. Young (MPE) and G. Zins (ESO).
These annotated images, obtained with the GRAVITY instrument on ESOs Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) between March and July 2021, reveal stars orbiting extremely close to Sgr A *, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. One of these stars, named S29, was observed as it was making its closest technique to the black hole at 13 billion kilometers, simply 90 times the distance between the Sun and Earth. Another star, called S300, was discovered for the very first time in the new VLTI observations.
The European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESOs VLTI) has obtained the inmost and sharpest images to date of the area around the supermassive great void at the center of our galaxy. The new images focus 20 times more than what was possible prior to the VLTI and have actually assisted astronomers discover a never-before-seen star close to the great void. By tracking the orbits of stars at the center of our Milky Way, the group has made the most accurate measurement yet of the great voids mass.
And here we show that we can do that to a greater accuracy than ever previously,” discusses Reinhard Genzel, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2020 for Sagittarius A * research study. On a quest to discover even more stars close to the black hole, the group, known as the GRAVITY collaboration, established a new analysis technique that has actually allowed them to get the inmost and sharpest images yet of our Galactic Centre. We are stunned by their quantity of information, and by the action and number of stars they reveal around the black hole,” explains Julia Stadler, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching who led the teams imaging efforts throughout her time at MPE.
With their latest observations, carried out in between March and July 2021, the team focused on making precise measurements of stars as they approached the black hole. No other star has ever been observed to pass that close to, or travel that fast around, the black hole.
Wide-field view of the center of the Milky Way. This visible light wide-field view reveals the abundant star clouds in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer) in the direction of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The entire image is filled with huge numbers of stars– however much more remain concealed behind clouds of dust and are only revealed in infrared images. This view was developed from photos in red and blue light and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is around 3.5 degrees x 3.6 degrees. Credit: ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2. Recommendation: Davide De Martin and S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard).
The teams measurements and images were enabled thanks to GRAVITY, a distinct instrument that the partnership established for ESOs VLTI, situated in Chile. GRAVITY integrates the light of all 4 8.2-meter telescopes of ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT) utilizing a method called interferometry. This method is complex, “but in the end you reach images 20 times sharper than those from the private VLT telescopes alone, exposing the tricks of the Galactic Center,” states Frank Eisenhauer from MPE, principal investigator of GRAVITY.
