Fatal fate - a gas cloud on its way towards Galactic Center black hole

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• Stefan Gillessen (MPE)
• Thursday 31 October 2013, 16:30-17:30
• Sackler Lecture Theatre, IoA (tea at 4.00 pm).

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Sackler Lecture 2013

In 2011, we discovered a compact gas cloud (_TG2T) with roughly 3 Earth masses that is falling on a near-radial orbit toward the massive black hole in the Galactic Center. The orbit is well constrained an pericenter passage is predicted for early 2014. Our data beautifully show that G2 gets tidally sheared apart due to the massive black hole’s force. During the next months, we expect that in addition to the tidal effects, hydrodynamics get important, when G2 collides with the hot ambient gas around Sgr A*. Simulations show that ultimately, the cloud~Rs material will fall into the massive black hole. Predictions for the accretion rate and luminosity evolution, however, are very difficult due to the many unknowns. Nevertheless, this might be a unique opportunity in the next years to observe how gas feeds a massive black hole in a galactic nucleus.

This talk is part of the The Sackler Lectures series.

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• Sackler Lecture Theatre, IoA (tea at 4.00 pm)
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