In 2012, astronomers in Germany made a puzzling discovery of a bizarre object named G2 in the center of the Milky Way that made a close approach to the supermassive black hole in 2014. Andrea Ghez “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.” A review of the awarded works presents us with an inspiring exploration history of more than 200 years toward understanding one of the most enigmatic objects in the spacetime, black holes (BHs), Nothing, not even light, can escape the intense gravitational field surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The Milky Way, like the other massive galaxies, is stick together by a supermassive black hole at its center. Ghez’s research group identified an unusual object at the center of our galaxy in 2005, which was later named G1. On October 6, the Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy, and to Roger Penrose for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity. Sagittarius A* is a bright and very compact radio source at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. By comparison, the supermassive black hole at the center of ultracompact dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1 is five times larger than the Milky Way’s, with a mass of 21 million suns, and is a stunning 15 percent of the small galaxy’s total mass of 140 million suns. Goran K Hansson, the academy's secretary-general, said German Reinhard Genzel and American Andrea Ghez will receive the second half of the prize for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy. The study of compact stellar remnants—white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes—and their larger cousins, supermassive black holes, is a major area of research in modern astrophysics. A mysterious object ‘woke up’ a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This annotated composite image shows the motion of the dusty cloud G2 as it closes in, and then passes, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and remains compact. supermassive black hole: the object in the center of most large galaxies that is so massive and compact that light cannot escape from it; the Milky Way’s supermassive … We may also earn commissions on purchases from other retail websites. It now marks a region of the galaxy that can serve as an observational laboratory for exploring the impact of a supermassive black hole on stellar and interstellar environments. Research Highlights This compact object is approximately one Astronomical Unit or … Compact objects are stellar remnants such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, as well as their higher mass counterparts supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. At radio wavelengths, the brightest feature of this region is the point-like radio source Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sag A star"). Using such ideas and mathematical relations between various cosmic components, astronomers were able to infer how large and how massive the object at the center of our galaxy is. An image of the area surrounding Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, in X-ray and infrared light. supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy. ESA–C. In 2012, astronomers in Germany made a puzzling discovery of a bizarre object named G2 in the center of the Milky Way that made a close approach to the supermassive black hole in 2014. ” Areviewofthe ... center of our galaxy is unique due to its closeness to us, at a distance of 25,000 light years. Above: A Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy.A supermassive black hole lurks inside the bright white patch near the center of the image. This source is a compact object, and approximately one Astronomical Unit (1 AU is about 93 million miles) in size, which is much smaller than our solar system (Neptune is 2.8 billion miles from the Sun). Download PDF Abstract: This is an invited commentary on the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 which was was awarded to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity," and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy." It has a mass of about 4 million times that of our Sun. Discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy and the development of general relativity won the 2020 Nobel prize for Physics October 16, 2020 by … It’s the first time astronomers have been able to measure polarization, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of a black hole. Space.com sat down with astronomer Andrea Ghez to talk about her research watching the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, for which she won a share of the 2020 Nobel Prize. 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