1 research outputs found
The Galactic Center: An Interacting System of Unusual Sources
The region bounded by the inner tens of light years at the center of the
Milky Way contains five principal components that coexist within the central
deep gravitational potential well. These constituents are a black hole
candidate (Sgr~A*) with a mass equivalent to suns, 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 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.Comment: 26 pages (text only); see the published article with ten figures
under Science Online Article http://www.physics.nwu.edu/research/zadeh.htm