Stellar Systems Group

Eckart, Andreas; Schödel, Rainer; García-Marín, Macarena; Witzel, Gunther; Weiss, Azel; Baganoff, Frederick; Morris, Mark R.; Bertram, Thomas; Dovčiak, Michal; Downes, Dennis; Duschl, Wolfgang; Karas, Vladimír; König, Sabine; Krichbaum, Thomas; Krips, Melanie; Kunneriath, Devaky; Lu, Ru-Sen; Markoff, Sera; Mauerhan, Jon; Meyer, Leo; Moultaka, Jihane; MužíC, Koraljka; Najarro, Francisco; Pott, Jörg-Uwe; Schuster, Karl; Sjouwerman, Loránt; Straubmeier, Christian; Thum, Clemens; Vogel, Stuart; Wiesemeyer, Helmut; Zamaninasab, Mohammad; Zensus, Anton
The Messenger, vol. 133, p. 26-30
09/2008

ABSTRACT

On 3 June 2008 an international team of researchers observed one of the brightest near-infrared flares close to SgrA*, the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. For the very first time the flare emission was detected in infrared light, with one of the VLT telescopes, and time delayed in sub-millimetre radiation with the APEX telescope. Recent simultaneous X-ray and infrared flares from SgrA* have been detected and can be explained by spots on relativistic orbits around the central, accreting supermassive black hole. The observations of flares now also show some evidence for time evolution of the spot properties. The investigation of dusty stars and filaments in the central stellar cluster also indicates the presence of a wind from the central region - possibly with a contribution from SgrA* itself.