Published on StarDate Online (https://legacy.stardate.org)

Home > Narrow Escape

Narrow Escape [1]

An object known as G2 whips around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy in this series of images from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. Astronomers originally predicted that the black hole would flare brightly as it ingested material from G2, which was identified as a large gas cloud. No such fireworks materialized, however, suggesting that G2 is a compact cloud of gas and dust surrounding a dense object in its core. These infrared images, which are color coded to show G2's location at different times, demonstrate that G2 was not significantly distorted by its closest approach to the black hole in May 2014, and that it survived the passage around the black hole unharmed. [ESO/A. Eckart]

G2 survives its swing around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way
  • Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13) [2]
  • Math [3]
  • Science [4]
  • About StarDate
  • Underwriting
  • SkyTips Sign-Up
  • Change mailing address
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright and Usage
  • Contact

StarDate is brought to you in part through the generous support of our underwriters.
Interested in underwriting? Let us know

 

FacebookTwitterYouTube

©2022 The University of Texas McDonald Observatory


Source URL:https://legacy.stardate.org/astro-guide/gallery/narrow-escape

Links
[1] https://legacy.stardate.org/astro-guide/gallery/narrow-escape [2] https://legacy.stardate.org/grade-level/grades-6-8-ages-11-13 [3] https://legacy.stardate.org/subject-areas/math [4] https://legacy.stardate.org/subject-areas/science