Probing the Remarkable Neighborhood of the Galactic Center's Supermassive Black Hole with Diffraction-Limited Studies of Stars, Dark Matter, and Accreting Gas

用衍射有限的恒星、暗物质和吸积气体研究探测银河系中心超大质量黑洞的非凡邻域。加州大学洛杉矶分校的安德里亚·盖兹（Andrea Ghez）将继续对银河系中心进行高分辨率研究。这项工作有四个主要目标：1)利用银河系中心黑洞附近恒星的短周期轨道，在研究结束时确定太阳-银河系中心距离的准确值；2)研究银河系中心区域有多少大质量的年轻恒星，在那里强大的潮汐力应该抵消导致恒星形成的引力坍缩；3)利用恒星轨道推导出恒星轨道进动变化的极限，这可能是由于暗物质分布的扩大；4)描述黑洞吸积流的最内层部分。拟议中的研究将使用凯克望远镜，结合1-20微米的衍射限制成像和近红外光谱。银河中央黑色的工作已经引起了广泛的关注，它是教育和推广的资源。与该计划相关的具体工作将包括：1)通过教科书和互联网创建入门课程的材料；2)纪录片;3)面向公众的演讲；4)高中生、本科生和研究生的研究机会。通过对恒星、暗物质和吸积气体的衍射有限研究探测银河系中心超大质量黑洞的显著邻域

Probing the Remarkable Neighborhood of the Galactic Center's Supermassive Black Hole with Diffraction-Limited Studies of Stars, Dark Matter, and Accreting GasABSTRACTAST 0406816 GhezDr. Andrea Ghez at the University of California, Los Angeles will undertake a continuing program of high-resolution studies of the center of our Galaxy. There are four primary goals to the work: 1) to use short-period orbits of stars near the Galactic center black hole, to determine an accurate value of the Sun-Galactic center distance by the end of the proposed study; 2) to investigate how massive young stars can be present in the central region of the Galaxy, where strong tidal forces should counteract gravitational collapse that leads to star formation; 3) to use stellar orbits to derive a limit to changes the precession of stellar orbits, which could be due to an extended dark mass distribution; and 4) to characterize the innermost portions of the accretion flow onto the black hole. The proposed research will be done with the Keck telescopes, using a combination of diffraction-limited imaging from 1-20 microns as well as near-infrared spectroscopy.Work on the Galaxy's central black has generated wide coverage, and it is a resource for education and outreach. Specific efforts associated with this program will include 1) the creation of material for introductory courses through textbooks and the internet; 2) documentaries; 3) talks for the general public; and 4) research opportunities for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students.Probing the Remarkable Neighborhood of the Galactic Center's Supermassive Black Hole with Diffraction-Limited Studies of Stars, Dark Matter, and Accreting Gas