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تسجيل مستخدم جديدNew observations of the gas cloud G2 in the Galactic Center
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We present new observations of the recently discovered gas cloud G2 currently falling towards the massive black hole in the Galactic Center. The new data confirm that G2 is on a highly elliptical orbit with a predicted pericenter passage mid 2013. The updated orbit has an even larger eccentricity of 0.966, an epoch of pericenter two months later than estimated before, and a nominal minimum distance of 2200 Schwarzschild radii only. The velocity gradient of G2 has developed further to 600 km/s FWHM in summer 2012. We also detect the tail of similar total flux and on the same orbit as G2 along the trajectory at high significance. No hydrodynamic effects are detected yet, since the simple model of a tidally shearing gas cloud still describes the data very well. The flux of G2 has not changed by more than 10% between 2008 and 2012, disfavoring models where additional gas from a reservoir is released to the disrupting diffuse gas component.
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In 2011, we discovered a compact gas cloud (G2) with roughly three Earth masses that is falling on a near-radial orbit toward the massive black hole in the Galactic Center. The orbit is well constrained and pericenter passage is predicted for early 2
014. Our data beautifully show that G2 gets tidally sheared apart due to the massive black holes force. During the next months, we expect that in addition to the tidal effects, hydrodynamics get important, when G2 collides with the hot ambient gas around Sgr A*. Simulations show that ultimately, the clouds material might fall into the massive black hole. Predictions for the accretion rate and luminosity evolution, however, are very difficult due to the many unknowns. Nevertheless, this might be a unique opportunity in the next years to observe how gas feeds a massive black hole in a galactic nucleus.
We present new observations and analysis of G2 - the intriguing red emission-line object which is quickly approaching the Galaxys central black hole. The observations were obtained with the laser guide star adaptive optics systems on the W. M. Keck I
and II telescopes and include spectroscopy (R ~ 3600) centered on the Hydrogen Br-gamma line as well as K (2.1 micrometer) and L (3.8 micrometer) imaging. Analysis of these observations shows the Br-gamma line emission has a positional offset from the L continuum. This offset is likely due to background source confusion at L. We therefore present the first orbital solution derived from Br-gamma line astrometry, which when coupled with radial velocity measurements, results in a later time of closest approach (2014.21 +/- 0.14), closer periastron (130 AU, 1900Rs), and higher eccentricity (0.9814 +/- 0.0060) compared to a solution using L astrometry. The new orbit casts doubt on previous associations of G2 and a low surface brightness tail. It is shown that G2 has no K counterpart down to K ~ 20 mag. G2s L continuum and the Br-gamma line-emission is unresolved in almost all epochs; however it is marginally extended in our highest quality Br-gamma data set from 2006 and exhibits a clear velocity gradient at that time. While the observations altogether suggest that G2 has a gaseous component which is tidally interacting with the central black hole, there is likely a central star providing the self-gravity necessary to sustain the compact nature of this object.
We have further followed the evolution of the orbital and physical properties of G2, the object currently falling toward the massive black hole in the Galactic Center on a near-radial orbit. New, very sensitive data were taken in April 2013 with NACO
and SINFONI at the ESO VLT . The head of G2 continues to be stretched ever further along the orbit in position-velocity space. A fraction of its emission appears to be already emerging on the blue-shifted side of the orbit, past pericenter approach. Ionized gas in the head is now stretched over more than 15,000 Schwarzschild radii RS around the pericenter of the orbit, at ~ 2000 RS ~ 20 light hours from the black hole. The pericenter passage of G2 will be a process stretching over a period of at least one year. The Brackett-{gamma} luminosity of the head has been constant over the past 9 years, to within +- 25%, as have the line ratios Brackett-{gamma} / Paschen-{alpha} and Brackett-{gamma} / Helium-I. We do not see any significant evidence for deviations of G2s dynamical evolution, due to hydrodynamical interactions with the hot gas around the black hole, from a ballistic orbit of an initially compact cloud with moderate velocity dispersion. The constant luminosity and the increasingly stretched appearance of the head of G2 in the position-velocity plane, without a central peak, is not consistent with several proposed models with continuous gas release from an initially bound zone around a faint star on the same orbit as G2.
We investigate the origin and fate of the recently discovered gas cloud G2 close to the Galactic Center. Our hydrodynamical simulations focussing on the dynamical evolution of the cloud in combination with currently available observations favor two s
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The origin, structure and evolution of the small gas cloud, G2, is investigated, that is on an orbit almost straight into the Galactic central supermassive black hole (SMBH). G2 is a sensitive probe of the hot accretion zone of Sgr A*, requiring gas
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