Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T01:40:55.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Milky Way's nuclear star cluster and massive black hole

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2016

Rainer Schödel
Rainer Schödel*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, ES-18008, Granada, Spain email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Because of its nearness to Earth, the centre of the Milky Way is the only galaxy nucleus in which we can study the characteristics, distribution, kinematics, and dynamics of the stars on milli-parsec scales. We have accurate and precise measurements of the Galactic centre's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, and can study its interaction with the surrounding nuclear star cluster in detail. This contribution aims at providing a concise overview of our current knowledge about the Milky Way's central black hole and nuclear star cluster, at highlighting the observational challenges and limitations, and at discussing some of the current key areas of investigation.

Keywords

Nuclear star clustersmassive black holesGalactic centre
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 10 , Issue S312: Star Clusters and Black Holes in Galaxies across Cosmic Time , August 2014 , pp. 274 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

References

Amaro-Seoane, P. & Chen, X. 2014, ApJ (Letters), 781, L18Google Scholar
Alexander, T. & Hopman, C. 2009, ApJ, 697, 1861CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartko, H., Martins, F., Fritz, T. K., Genzel, R., Levin, Y., Perets, H. B., Paumard, T., Nayakshin, S., Gerhard, O., Alexander, T., Dodds-Eden, K., Eisenhauer, F., Gillessen, S., Mascetti, L., Ott, T., Perrin, G., Pfuhl, O., Reid, M. J., Rouan, D., Sternberg, A., & Trippe, S. 2009, ApJ, 697, 1741Google Scholar
Bartko, H., Martins, F., Trippe, S., Fritz, T. K., Genzel, R., Ott, T., Eisenhauer, F., Gillessen, S., Paumard, T., Alexander, T., Dodds-Eden, K., Gerhard, O., Levin, Y., Mascetti, L., Nayakshin, S., Perets, H. B., Perrin, G., Pfuhl, O., Reid, M. J., Rouan, D., Zilka, M., & Sternberg, A. 2010, ApJ, 708, 834CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Böker, T. 2014, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium 266, 58Google Scholar
Bonnell, I. A. & Rice, W. K. M. 2008, Science, 321, 1060CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchholz, R. M., Schödel, R., & Eckart, A. 2009, A&A, 499, 483Google Scholar
Chatzopoulos, S., Fritz, T. K., Gerhard, O., Gillessen, S., Wegg, C., Genzel, R., & Pfuhl, O. 2015, MNRAS, 447, 948CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dale, J. E., Davies, M. B., Church, R. P., & Freitag, M. 2009, MNRAS, 393, 1016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Do, T., Ghez, A. M., Morris, M. R., Lu, J. R., Matthews, K., Yelda, S., & Larkin, J. 2009, ApJ, 703, 1323Google Scholar
Do, T., Martinez, G. D., Yelda, S., Ghez, A., Bullock, J., Kaplinghat, M., Lu, J. R., Peter, A. H. G., & Phifer, K. 2013, ApJ (Letters), 779, L6Google Scholar
Eckart, A. & Genzel, R. 1996, Nature, 383, 415CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldmeier, A., Neumayer, N., Seth, A., Schödel, R., Lützgendorf, N., de Zeeuw, P. T., Kissler-Patig, M., Nishiyama, S., & Walcher, C. J. 2014, A&A 570 id.A2Google Scholar
Fritz, T. K., Gillessen, S., Dodds-Eden, K., Lutz, D., Genzel, R., Raab, W., Ott, T., Pfuhl, O., Eisenhauer, F., & Yusef-Zadeh, F. 2011, ApJ, 737, 73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fritz, T. K., Chatzopoulos, S., Gerhard, O., Gillessen, S., Genzel, R., Pfuhl, O., Tacchella, S., Eisenhauer, F., & Ott, T. 2014, ArXiv e-prints, 1406.7568FGoogle Scholar
Genzel, R., Eisenhauer, F., & Gillessen, S. 2010, Rev. Mod. Physics, 82, 3121CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghez, A. M., Klein, B. L., Morris, M., & Becklin, E. E. 1998, ApJ, 509, 678CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghez, A. M., Duchêne, G., Matthews, K., Hornstein, S. D., Tanner, A., Larkin, J., Morris, M., Becklin, E. E., Salim, S., Kremenek, T., Thompson, D., Soifer, B. T., Neugebauer, G., & McLean, I. 2003, ApJ (Letters), 586, L127Google Scholar
Ghez, A. M., Salim, S., Weinberg, N. N., Lu, J. R., Do, T., Dunn, J. K., Matthews, K., Morris, M. R., Yelda, S., Becklin, E. E., Kremenek, T., Milosavljevic, M., & Naiman, J. 2008, ApJ, 689, 1044Google Scholar
Gillessen, S., Eisenhauer, F., Trippe, S., Alexander, T., Genzel, R., Martins, F., & Ott, T. 2009, ApJ, 692, 1075Google Scholar
Gültekin, K., Richstone, D. O., Gebhardt, K., Lauer, T. R., Tremaine, S., Aller, M. C., Bender, R., Dressler, A., Faber, S. M., Filippenko, A. V., Green, R., Ho, L. C., Kormendy, J., Magorrian, J., Pinkney, J., & Siopis, C. 2009, ApJ, 698, 198Google Scholar
Launhardt, R., Zylka, R., & Mezger, P. G. 2002, A&A, 384, 112Google Scholar
Levin, Y. & Beloborodov, A. M. 2003, ApJ (Letters), 590, L33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Löckmann, U., Baumgardt, H., & Kroupa, P. 2010, MNRAS, 402, 519Google Scholar
Lu, J. R., Ghez, A. M., Hornstein, S. D., Morris, M. R., Becklin, E. E., & Matthews, K. 2009, ApJ, 690, 1463Google Scholar
Lu, J. R., Do, T., Ghez, A. M., Morris, M. R., Yelda, S., & Matthews, K. 2013, ApJ, 764, 155CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merritt, D. & Szell, A. 2006, ApJ, 648, 890CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merritt, D. 2010, ApJ, 718, 739Google Scholar
Meyer, L., Ghez, A. M., Schödel, R., Yelda, S., Boehle, A., Lu, J. R., Do, T., Morris, M. R., Becklin, E. E., & Matthews, K. 2012, Science, 338, 84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nayakshin, S. & Sunyaev, R. 2005, ApJ, 364, L23Google Scholar
Nishiyama, S., Nagata, T., Tamura, M., Kandori, R., Hatano, H., Sato, S., & Sugitani, K. 2008, ApJ, 680, 1174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paumard, T., Genzel, R., Martins, F., Nayakshin, S., Beloborodov, A. M., Levin, Y., Trippe, S., Eisenhauer, F., Ott, T., Gillessen, S., Abuter, R., Cuadra, J., Alexander, T., & Sternberg, A. 2006, ApJ, 643, 1011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perets, H. B., Gualandris, A., Kupi, G., Merritt, D., & Alexander, T. 2009, ApJ, 702, 884Google Scholar
Pfuhl, O., Fritz, T. K., Zilka, M., Maness, H., Eisenhauer, F., Genzel, R., Gillessen, S., Ott, T., Dodds-Eden, K., & Sternberg, A. 2011, ApJ, 741, 108Google Scholar
Preto, M. & Amaro-Seoane, P. 2010, ApJ (Letters), 708, L42Google Scholar
Schödel, R., Ott, T., Genzel, R., Eckart, A., Mouawad, N., & Alexander, T. 2003, ApJ, 596, 1015Google Scholar
Schödel, R., Eckart, A., Alexander, T., Merritt, D., Genzel, R., Sternberg, A., Meyer, L., Kul, F., Moultaka, J., Ott, T., & Straubmeier, C. 2007, A&A, 469, 125Google Scholar
Schödel, R., Merritt, D., & Eckart, A. 2009, A&A, 502, 91Google Scholar
Schödel, R., Najarro, F., Muzic, K., & Eckart, A. 2010, A&A 511 id.A18Google Scholar
Schödel, R., Feldmeier, A., Kunneriath, D., Stolovy, S., Neumayer, N., Amaro-Seoane, P., & Nishiyama, S. 2014, A&A 566 id.A47Google Scholar
Schödel, R., Feldmeier, A., Neumayer, N., Meyer, L., & Yelda, S. 2014, Classical and Quantum Gravity 31 id.244007Google Scholar
Seth, A. C., van den Bosch, R., Mieske, S., Baumgardt, H., Brok, M. D., Strader, J., Neumayer, N., Chilingarian, I., Hilker, M., McDermid, R., Spitler, L., Brodie, J., Frank, M. J., & Walsh, J. L. 2014, Nature, 513, 398Google Scholar
Weinberg, N. N., Milosavljević, M., & Ghez, A. M. 2005, ApJ, 622, 878CrossRefGoogle Scholar