Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Sagittarius A*
References
Images
Sagittarius A* Sagittarius A*
Britannica AI Icon

Sagittarius A*

black hole
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

Sagittarius A*
Sagittarius A* Cosmic radio-wave source Sagittarius A*, in an image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sagittarius A*, an extremely bright point source within the larger Sagittarius A complex, is a black hole at the Milky Way Galaxy's centre.

Sagittarius A (Sgr A) is a supermassive black hole located at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, within the constellation Sagittarius. It possesses a mass equivalent to four million Suns. Sgr A is a powerful source of radio waves and is characterized by its compact size and extreme brightness. Observations of stars orbiting Sgr A have provided evidence for its existence as a black hole, a finding that contributed to the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for astronomers Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel. The Event Horizon Telescope has even captured direct images of the gas surrounding Sgr A*, revealing the shadow of the black hole against this luminous material.1

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
3 Britannica Sources
  1. Sagittarius A*
  2. supermassive black hole
  3. Sagittarius

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.