Best View Yet of Dusty Cloud Passing Galactic Center Black Hole

A supermassive black hole with a mass four million times that of the Sun lies at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.
It is orbited by a small group of bright stars and, in addition, an enigmatic dusty cloud, known as G2, has been tracked on its fall towards the black hole over the last few years. Closest approach, known as peribothron, was predicted to be in May 2014.

The great tidal forces in this region of very strong gravity were expected to tear the cloud apart and disperse it along its orbit. Some of this material would feed the black hole and lead to sudden flaring and other evidence of the monster enjoying a rare meal. To study these unique events, the region at the galactic centre has been very carefully observed over the last few years by many teams using large telescopes around the world.

A team led by Andreas Eckart (University of Cologne, Germany) has observed the region using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) [1] over many years, including new observations during the critical period from February to September 2014, just before and after the peribothron event in May 2014. These new observations are consistent with earlier ones made using the Keck Telescope on Hawaii [2].

The images of infrared light coming from glowing hydrogen show that the cloud was compact both before and after its closest approach, as it swung around the black hole.

As well as providing very sharp images, the SINFONI instrument on the VLT also splits the light into its component infrared colours and hence allows the velocity of the cloud to be estimated [3]. Before closest approach, the cloud was found to be travelling away from the Earth at about ten million kilometres/hour and, after swinging around the black hole, it was measured to be approaching the Earth at about twelve million kilometres/hour.

Florian Peissker, a PhD student at the University of Cologne in Germany, who did much of the observing, says: “Being at the telescope and seeing the data arriving in real time was a fascinating experience,” and Monica Valencia-S., a post-doctoral researcher also at the University of Cologne, who then worked on the challenging data processing adds: “It was amazing to see that the glow from the dusty cloud stayed compact before and after the close approach to the black hole.”

Although earlier observations had suggested that the G2 object was being stretched, the new observations did not show evidence that the cloud had become significantly smeared out, either by becoming visibly extended, or by showing a larger spread of velocities.

In addition to the observations with the SINFONI instrument the team has also made a long series of measurements of the polarisation of the light coming from the supermassive black hole region using the NACO instrument on the VLT. These, the best such observations so far, reveal that the behaviour of the material being accreted onto the black hole is very stable, and — so far — has not been disrupted by the arrival of material from the G2cloud.

The resilience of the dusty cloud to the extreme gravitational tidal effects so close to the black hole strongly suggest that it surrounds a dense object with a massive core, rather than being a free-floating cloud. This is also supported by the lack, so far, of evidence that the central monster is being fed with material, which would lead to flaring and increased activity.

Andreas Eckart sums up the new results: “We looked at all the recent data and in particular the period in 2014 when the closest approach to the black hole took place. We cannot confirm any significant stretching of the source. It certainly does not behave like a coreless dust cloud. We think it must be a dust-shrouded young star.”

Notes

[1] These are very difficult observations as the region is hidden behind thick dust clouds, requiring observations in infrared light. And, in addition, the events occur very close to the black hole, requiring adaptive optics to get sharp enough images. The team used the SINFONI instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and also monitored the behaviour of the central black hole region in polarised light using the NACO instrument.

[2] The VLT observations are both sharper (because they are made at shorter wavelengths) and also have additional measurements of velocity from SINFONI and polarisation measurement using the NACO instrument.

[3] Because the dusty cloud is moving relative to Earth — away from Earth before closest approach to the black hole and towards Earth afterwards — the Doppler shift changes the observed wavelength of light. These changes in wavelength can be measured using a sensitive spectrograph such as the SINFONI instrument on the VLT. It can also be used to measure the spread of velocities of the material, which would be expected if the cloud was extended along its orbit to a significant extent, as had previously been reported.

More information

This research was presented in a paper “Monitoring the Dusty S-Cluster Object (DSO/G2) on its Orbit towards the Galactic Center Black Hole” by M. Valencia-S. et al. in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The team is composed of M. Valencia-S. (Physikalisches Institut der Universitt zu Kln, Germany), A. Eckart (Universitt zu Kln; Max-Planck-Institut fr Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany [MPIfR]), M. Zajacek (Universitt zu Kln; MPIfR; Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences Prague, Czech Republic), F. Peissker (Universitt zu Kln), M. Parsa (Universitt zu Kln), N. Grosso (Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, France), E. Mossoux (Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg), D. Porquet (Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg), B. Jalali (Universitt zu Kln), V. Karas (Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences Prague), S. Yazici (Universitt zu Kln), B. Shahzamanian (Universitt zu Kln), N. Sabha (Universitt zu Kln), R. Saalfeld (Universitt zu Kln), S. Smajic (Universitt zu Kln), R. Grellmann (Universitt zu Kln), L. Moser (Universitt zu Kln), M. Horrobin (Universitt zu Kln), A. Borkar (Universitt zu Kln), M. Garca-Marn (Universitt zu Kln), M. Dovciak (Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences Prague), D. Kunneriath (Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences Prague), G. D. Karssen (Universitt zu Kln), M. Bursa (Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences Prague), C. Straubmeier (Universitt zu Kln)and H. Bushouse (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links

* Research paper: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1512/eso1512a.pdf

* Photos of the VLT: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/