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Sagittarius A* Animations
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Sequence of Chandra Images of
Galactic Center & Sgr A*
This sequence begins with a 400 by 900 light-year
mosaic of several Chandra images of the central region
of our Galaxy that reveals hundreds of white
dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes bathed in
an incandescent fog of multimillion-degree gas. The
mosaic then zooms into a large region around the
supermassive black hole at our Galaxy's center,
a.k.a. Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*. Marked in this field
around Sgr A* are two newly discovered large lobes of
multimillion-degree gas that extend for dozens of light
years on either side of the black hole. The final
Chandra image in this sequence is a close-up of the
location of the supermassive black hole Sgr A* and an
X-ray jet. This suspected jet is 1.5 light years in
length and is due to high-energy particles ejected from
the vicinity of the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:22]
Credit:
Galactic Center (Survey): NASA/UMass/D.Wang et
al.
Sgr A* (3-color & close-up):
NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K.Baganoff et al.
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Black Hole Animation
This sequence begins with a 600,000-second exposure of
Sgr A* made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Next, it zooms into the precise location of the central
supermassive hole, and then dissolves into an artist's
rendition of the system. This illustrates how
high-energy particles and X-ray flares are produced
when matter falls onto the accretion disk around a
supermassive black hole.
[Run time = 0:22 sec]
(Animation: NASA/SAO/CXC/D.Berry
)
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Return to Sagittarius
A* (06 Jan 03)
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