In the past decade high resolution measurements in the infrared employing
adaptive optics imaging on 10m telescopes have allowed determining the three
dimensional orbits stars within ten light hours of the compact radio source at
the center of the Milky Way. These observations show the presence of a three
million solar mass black hole in Sagittarius A* beyond any reasonable doubt.
The Galactic Center thus constitutes the best astrophysical evidence for the
existence of black holes which have long been postulated, and is also an ideal
`lab' for studying the physics in the vicinity of such an object. Remarkably,
young massive stars are present there and probably have formed in the innermost
stellar cusp. Variable infrared and X-ray emission from Sagittarius A* are a
new probe of the physical processes and space-time curvature just outside the
event horizon.Comment: Write up of the talk at IAU Symposium No. 238 (21-25 August 2006,
Prague), to appear in Proceedings of "Black Holes: from Stars to Galaxies"
(Cambridge University Press), p. 17
