Heated gas swirls around the region of the Milky Way galaxy’s supermassive black hole, illuminated in near-infrared light captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Released in 2009 to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, this was the sharpest infrared image ever made of the galactic center region. NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in December 2021, will continue this research, pairing Hubble-strength resolution with even more infrared-detecting capability. Of particular interest for astronomers will be Webb’s observations of flares in the area, which have not been observed around any other supermassive black hole and the cause of which is unknown. The flares have complicated the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration’s quest to capture an image of the area immediately surrounding the black hole, and Webb’s infrared data is expected to help greatly in producing a clean image.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, STScI, Q.D. Wang (UMass)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Sagittarius A* |
| Object Description | Center of the Milky Way Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 17h 45m 36.0s |
| Dec. Position | -28° 55' 58.8" |
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
| Distance | 26,000 light-years (8 kiloparsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Spitzer Data: The Spitzer Space Telescope data were courtesy of NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/California Institute of Technology). Hubble Data: The Hubble component was from the HST proposal : Q.D. Wang (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), S. Stolovy (Caltech), C. Lang (University of Iowa), A. Cotera (SETI Institute), M. Muno (Caltech), M. Morris (University of California, Los Angeles), D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), S. Ramirez (Caltech), and G. Schneider (University of Arizona). Chandra Data: The science team was led by Q.D. Wang (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). Image courtesy of NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang et al. |
| Instrument | SST>IRAC, HST>NICMOS, and CXO>ACIS |
| Exposure Dates | September 3, 2004, and September 15, 2005 (SST), February 22 - June 5, 2008 (HST), and March 2000 - July 2007 (CXO) |
| Filters | SST: 3.6 microns, 4.5 microns, 5.8 microns, and 8.0 microns HST: F187N (Paschen-Alpha) and F190N (Paschen-Alpha continuum) CXO: 1-3 keV, 3-5 keV, 5-8 keV |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
