Live the Trinity » Astronomy http://livethetrinity.net Questions about life, the universe, everything Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:12:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Yes Virginia – there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy http://livethetrinity.net/2008/12/yes-virginia-there-is-a-black-hole-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy/ http://livethetrinity.net/2008/12/yes-virginia-there-is-a-black-hole-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:30:12 +0000 Rick http://livethetrinity.net/?p=264 Continue reading →]]> Not everyone knows that for most of my life I have been an astronomy buff. Was given my first telescope around age 8(?). Built a telescope (six inch Newtonian) in eighth grade. Took daily observations primarily of the sun and planets. And if I had several thousand dollars to spare on whatever a good eight inch reflector with excellent mount would be on my short list. (Meade. Plus a Super-Plossl eyepiece or two. Thanks for asking.)

For sixteen years astronomers have been trying to figure out if yes indeed there is – as had been theorized for decades – a black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. What they did in a nutshell was observe the motion of a tight cluster of stars – one of which passed within one light day of… something. Sure enough – the observations confirm what many had thought.

Galactic center of Milky Way

There is a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy – about four million times the mass of our Sun.

Check it out at Astronomy Picture of the Day archive. You do not have to register.

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