Sagittarius A*

Sagittarius A*

Sagittarius A*

Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy, located in the constellation Sagittarius and having a mass equivalent to four million Suns. It is a strong source of radio waves and is embedded in the larger Sagittarius A complex. Most of the radio radiation is from a synchrotron mechanism, indicating the presence of free electrons and magnetic fields. Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius a star”) is a compact, extremely bright point source. X-ray, infrared, spectroscopic, and radio interferometric investigations have indicated the very small dimensions of this region; the event horizon of the black hole has a radius of 12 million km (7 million miles). Infrared observations of stars orbiting the position of Sagittarius A* demonstrate the presence of a black hole. (For these infrared observations, American astronomer Andrea Ghez and German astronomer Reinhard Genzel were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics.) The Event Horizon Telescope directly imaged the light from the surrounding hot bright gas bent by Sagittarius A*’s gravity and the shadow of the black hole against the hot gas. These properties are similar to those of other galaxies with active nuclei (e.g., Seyfert galaxies) but on a smaller scale.