The Galactic Center: An Interacting System of Unusual Sources
F. Yusef-Zadeh,
1
F. Melia,
2
M. Wardle
3
The region bounded by the inner tens of light-years at the
center of the Milky Way Galaxy contains five principal components that
coexist within the central deep well of gravitational potential. These
constituents are a black hole candidate (Sgr A*) with a mass equivalent
to 2.6 ± 0.2 × 106 solar masses, a surrounding
cluster of evolved stars, a complex of young stars, molecular and
ionized gas clouds, and a powerful supernova-like remnant. The
interaction of these components is responsible for many of the
phenomena occurring in this complex and unique portion of the Galaxy.
Developing a consistent picture of the primary interactions between the
components at the Galactic center will improve our understanding of the
nature of galactic nuclei in general, and will provide us with a
better-defined set of characteristics of black holes. For example, the
accretion of stellar winds by Sgr A* appears to produce far less
radiation than indicated by estimates based on models of galactic
nuclei.
1 Department of Physics and Astronomy,
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. E-mail:
zadeh{at}nwu.edu.
2 Department of Physics and Steward
Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. E-mail:
melia{at}as.arizona.edu.
3 Special Research Centre for
Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales
2006, Australia. E-mail: wardle{at}physics.usyd.edu.au
