Stellar Orbits Around Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center

1
Stellar Orbits Around Supermassive Black Hole at
the Galactic Center
Andrea Ghez et al. (2003)
2
Overlay of Stellar Orbits on Image of 1 at
Galactic Center
Andrea Ghez et al. (2003)
3
Stellar Orbits Around Supermassive Black Hole at
the Galactic Center
Bernhard Genzel et al. (2003)
4
Limit on Enclosed Mass at the Galactic Center
Bernhard Genzel et al. (2003)
5
Kormendy Richstone (2003)
6
Conclusions

• Recent observations have explored distance from
  Sgr A down to 0.01 pc
• This is only 40,000 times size (event horizon)
  of a black hole with MBH 2 x 106 MSun
• No other kind of object is known to exist which
  could be so small yet so massive
• There appear to be supermassive black holes at
  the centers of all galaxies