Stellar Systems Group

Zamaninasab, M.; Eckart, A.; Meyer, L.; Schödel, R.; Dovciak, M.; Karas, V.; Kunneriath, D.; Witzel, G.; Gießübel, R.; König, S.; Straubmeier, C.; Zensus, A.
"Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 131, Proceedings of "The Universe Under the Microscope - Astrophysics at High Angular Resolution", held 21-25 April 2008, in Bad Honnef, Germany. Editors: Rainer Schoedel, Andreas Eckart, Susanne Pfalzner and Eduardo Ros, pp. 012008 (2008)."
10/2008

ABSTRACT

Here we report on recent near-infrared observations of the Sgr A* counterpart associated with the super-massive thicksim 4 x 10⁶M_odot black hole at the Galactic Center. We find that the May 2007 flare shows the highest sub-flare contrast observed until now, as well as evidence for variations in the profile of consecutive sub-flares. We modeled the flare profile variations according to the elongation and change of the shape of a spot due to differential rotation within the accretion disk.