Images of gas cloud being ripped apart by the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way

Eso_eso1332a_1024

eso_eso1332a July 17th, 2013

Credit: ESO/S. Gillessen

New observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope show for the first time a gas cloud being ripped apart by the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. Shown here are VLT observations from 2006, 2010 and 2013, coloured blue, green and red respectively. Due to its distance, and the fact that we see the orbit at a steep angle as the cloud falls towards the black hole, only the position, not the shape, of the cloud can be discerned in this image. The stretching of the cloud is seen in observations of its velocity, which allow astronomers to work out where on its orbit the different parts of the cloud are now located.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1332a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Milky Way Milky Way Galactic Centre Sgr A*
Subject - Milky Way
Galaxy > Component > Central Black Hole

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Grayscale VLT (SINFONI) Infrared -
Red VLT (SINFONI) Infrared (Bracket Gamma) -
Green VLT (SINFONI) Infrared (Bracket Gamma) -
Blue VLT (SINFONI) Infrared (Bracket Gamma) -
Eso_eso1332a_1280
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ID
eso1332a
Subject Category
B.5.4.6  
Subject Name
Milky Way, Milky Way Galactic Centre, Sgr A*
Credits
ESO/S. Gillessen
Release Date
2013-07-17T12:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1332a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
SINFONI, SINFONI, SINFONI, SINFONI
Color Assignment
Grayscale, Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
-, Bracket Gamma, Bracket Gamma, Bracket Gamma
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
1028.0, 1029.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso1332a
Metadata Date
2013-07-16T11:07:42+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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