Andrea M. Ghez - Black Holes at The Galactic Center

Black Holes At The Galactic Center

By using the high resolution of the Keck telescope in the infrared, Ghez and her colleagues have been able to peer into the dark center of our galaxy. They have discovered many stars in highly elliptical orbits around the huge black hole there. This graphic shows the partial orbits of many stars orbiting the black hole at the Galactic Center. Since 1995, object SO-2 has made almost a complete elliptical orbit. The graphic was made from snapshots of the position of the various stars over the last decade. Several decades more will be required to complete the orbits of some of these stars. in October 2012, a second star was identified by her team at UCLA, S0-102, orbiting the Galactic Center.

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