[33][34], In July 2018, it was reported that S2 orbiting Sgr A* had been recorded at 7,650 km/s, or 2.55% the speed of light, leading up to the pericenter approach, in May 2018, at about 120 AU (approximately 1,400 Schwarzschild radii) from Sgr A*. The Eastern Arm and the Bar seem to be two additional large clouds similar to the Northern Arm, although they do not share the same orbital plane. Since then, S62 and then S4714 have been found to approach even more closely than those stars. Is there a Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way? [47], As of 2020[update], S4714 is the current record holder of closest approach to Sagittarius A*, at about 12.6 AU (1.88 billion km), almost as close as Saturn gets to the Sun, traveling at about 8% of the speed of light. These newly identified black holes were found within three light years — a relatively short distance on cosmic scales — of the supermassive black hole at our Galaxy's center known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). As described in our press release, astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to take a major step in understanding why material around Sgr A* … It is hoped the measurements will test Einstein's theory of relativity more rigorously than has previously been done. [8], Astronomers have been unable to observe Sgr A* in the optical spectrum because of the effect of 25 magnitudes of extinction by dust and gas between the source and Earth. [32], In a paper published on October 31, 2018, the discovery of conclusive evidence that Sagittarius A* is a black hole was announced. ", "Surfing a Black Hole - Star Orbiting Massive Milky Way Centre Approaches to within 17 Light-Hours", "Black hole at centre of galaxy is getting hungrier, say scientists", Recent Results of the MPE Infrared/Submillimeter Group, Kinematic and structural analysis of the Minispiral in the Galactic Center from BEAR spectro-imagery (preprint), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sagittarius_A&oldid=993029434, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 8 December 2020, at 12:16. It is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of the ecliptic. [24], On 13 May 2019, astronomers using the Keck Observatory witnessed a sudden brightening of Sgr A*, which became 75 times brighter than usual, suggesting that the supermassive black hole may have encountered another object. [16], In 2019, measurements made with the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus (HAWC+) revealed that magnetic fields cause the surrounding ring of gas and dust, temperatures of which range from −280 °F (−173.3 °C) to 17,500 °F (9,700 °C),[17] to flow into an orbit around Sagittarius A*, keeping black hole emissions low. AX J1745.6-2900, SAGITTARIUS A, W 24, Cul 1742-28, SGR A, [DGW65] 96, EQ 1742-28. [1], This feature is approximately 25 light-years in width and has the attributes of a supernova remnant from an explosive event that occurred between 35 000 and 100 000 BC. Sagittarius A or Sgr A is a complex radio source at the center of the Milky Way which contains a supermassive black hole. You don’t usually think of a supermassive black hole as something that can go unnoticed, but many of these interstellar monsters are quite placid. The European Space Agency's gamma-ray observatory INTEGRAL observed gamma rays interacting with the nearby giant molecular cloud Sagittarius B2, causing X-ray emission from the cloud. 02.08.12 This image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the center of our Galaxy, with a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A* for short) in the center. These stars are observed primarily in K band infrared wavelengths, as interstellar dust drastically limits visibility in visible wavelengths. [11] The current highest-resolution (approximately 30 μas) measurement, made at a wavelength of 1.3 mm, indicated an overall angular size for the source of 50 μas. Black Holes: Sagittarius A* Identifying our galaxy’s supermassive black hole by tracking stars’ orbits. These exactly match theoretical predictions for hot spots orbiting close to a black hole of four million solar masses. The observed distribution of the planes of the orbits of the S stars limits the spin of Sagittarius A* to less than 10% of its theoretical maximum value. This observation may add support to the idea that supermassive black holes grow by absorbing nearby smaller black holes and stars. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius, and is hidden from view at optical wavelengths by large clouds of cosmic dust in the spiral arms of the Milky Way. Just a quibble, but I believe that the proper designation for the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way is “Sagittarius A*”, with the asterisk. A stellar-mass black hole, with a mass of tens of times the mass of the Sun, can likely form in seconds, after the collapse of a massive star. G2 has been observed to be disrupting since 2009,[51] and was predicted by some to be completely destroyed by the encounter, which could have led to a significant brightening of X-ray and other emission from the black hole. On October 16, 2002, an international team led by Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics reported the observation of the motion of the star S2 near Sagittarius A* throughout a period of ten years. The unusual event may have been caused by the breaking apart of an asteroid falling into the black hole or by the entanglement of magnetic field lines within gas flowing into Sgr A*, according to astronomers. Supermassive Black Hole Sagittarius A*. A study was done with the measured parallaxes and motions of 10 massive regions in the Sagittarius spiral arm of the Milky Way where stars are formed. The Very Large Telescope and Keck Telescope detected stars orbiting Sgr A* at speeds greater than that of any other stars in the galaxy. 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*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is surrounded by orbiting stars thanks to its mammoth gravitational … This black hole bounty consists of stellar-mass black holes, which typically weigh between five to 30 times the mass of the Sun. Death is like a Black Hole. [61], An analysis published on July 21, 2014, based on observations by the ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, concluded alternatively that the cloud, rather than being isolated, might be a dense clump within a continuous but thinner stream of matter, and would act as a constant breeze on the disk of matter orbiting the black hole, rather than sudden gusts that would have caused high brightness as they hit, as originally expected. But, on 16th October 2002, an international team led by German astrophysics Reinhard Genzel watched a star S2 moving … [56], Simulations of the passage were made before it happened by groups at ESO[57] and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). If discrepancies between the theory of relativity and observations are found, scientists may have identified physical circumstances under which the theory breaks down. Several astronomical facilities observed this closest approach, with observations confirmed with Chandra, XMM, VLA, INTEGRAL, Swift, Fermi and requested at VLT and Keck. In the case of such a black hole, the observed radio and infrared energy emanates from gas and dust heated to millions of degrees while falling into the black hole. An excerpt from a table of this cluster (see Sagittarius A* cluster), featuring the most prominent members. [29] For comparison, the Schwarzschild radius is 0.08 AU. [5], A gas cloud, G2, passed through the Sagittarius A* region in 2014 and managed to do so without disappearing beyond the event horizon, as theorists predicted would happen. Rather, it disintegrated, suggesting that G2 and a previous gas cloud, G1, were star remnants with larger gravitational fields than gas clouds. The blue-coloured spots are hot gas emitting rays which are being pulled towards the black hole. These relatively small black holes can also be made through the merger of two dense stellar remnants called neutron stars. Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A-Star", abbreviated Sgr A*) is a bright and very compact astronomical radio source at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. Some come here as part of a speed race or challenge, others to gain the experience (and credits) of scanning the most massive stellar body in the galaxy. Therefore, strictly speaking, Sagittarius A* isn’t a black hole, but rather a region nearby. Other astronomers suggested the gas cloud could be hiding a dim star, or a binary star merger product, which would hold it together against the tidal forces of Sgr A*, allowing the ensemble to pass by without any effect. This black hole bounty consists of stellar-mass black holes, which typically weigh between five to 30 times the mass of the Sun. The VLBI radio observations of Sagittarius A* could also be aligned centrally with the NIR images, so the focus of S2's elliptical orbit was found to coincide with the position of Sagittarius A*. The surface layer of these clouds is ionized. [41][42] In 2011 this conclusion was supported by Japanese astronomers observing the Milky Way's center with the Suzaku satellite. The black hole at the centre of the Milky Way lies at a distance of 26,000 light years from Earth. The Event Horizon Telescope uses interferometry to combine images taken from widely spaced observatories at different places on Earth in order to gain a higher picture resolution. A close look at the black hole Sagittarius A* in the Milky Way galaxy seen in spectra of X-rays by NASA’s Chandra Observatory. The source of ionisation is the population of massive stars (more than one hundred OB stars have been identified so far) that also occupy the central parsec. It is made of several dust and gas clouds, which orbit and fall onto Sagittarius A* at velocities as high as 1,000 kilometers per second. This black hole of 1,300 solar masses is within a cluster of seven stars. The nature and kinematics of the Northern Arm cloud of Sgr A West suggest that it once was a clump in the CND, which fell due to some perturbation, perhaps the supernova explosion responsible for Sgr A East. Well, technically, they aren't watching the black hole itself, which scientists call Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. It is nearly 30,000 light years away at the very centre of our galaxy, but is still hundreds of times closer than other such black holes, which are … Emission from highly energetic electrons very close to the black hole was visible as three prominent bright flares. Supporting this hypothesis, G1, a cloud that passed near the black hole 13 years ago, had an orbit almost identical to G2, consistent with both clouds, and a gas tail thought to be trailing G2, all being denser clumps within a large single gas stream. [3] Sagittarius A* is the location of a supermassive black hole,[4][5][6] similar to those at the centers of most, if not all, spiral and elliptical galaxies. According to the team's analysis, the data ruled out the possibility that Sgr A* contains a cluster of dark stellar objects or a mass of degenerate fermions, strengthening the evidence for a massive black hole. Using intermittent observations over several years, Chandra has detected X-ray flares about once a day from Sgr A*. The supermassive black hole SGR a* Basically, this black hole has a mass of about 4 million times as the sun as you know that this black hole is in the space where the gravity is stronger. The supermassive black hole goes by the name of Sagittarius A*, and weighs in at 4 million times the mass of our Sun. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius, and is hidden from view at optical wavelengths by large clouds of cosmic dust in the spiral arms of the Milky Way. The high velocities and close approaches to the supermassive black hole makes these stars useful to establish limits on the physical dimensions of Sagittarius A*, as well as to observe general-relativity associated effects like periapse shift of their orbits. Using the GRAVITY interferometer and the four telescopes of the Very Large Telescope(VLT) to create a virtual telescope 130 metres in diameter, astronomers detected clumps of gas moving at about 30% of the speed of light. The most prominent of these perturbations is the Minicavity, which is interpreted as a bubble blown inside the Northern Arm by the stellar wind of a massive star, which is not clearly identified. The flares are thought to originate from magnetic interactions in the very hot gas orbiting very close to Sagittarius A*. Khalid Masood. This supermassive black hole is also like that. [18], Karl Jansky, considered a father of radio astronomy, discovered in August 1931 that a radio signal was coming from a location at the center of the Milky Way, in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius;[19] the radio source later became known as Sagittarius A. This appearance and nickname are misleading, though: the three-dimensional structure of the Minispiral is not that of a spiral. [27] Later observations of the star S14 showed the mass of the object to be about 4.1 million solar masses within a volume with radius no larger than 6.25 light-hours (45 AU) or about 6.7 billion kilometres. It consists of three components: the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East, the spiral structure Sagittarius A West, and a very bright compact radio source at the center of the spiral, Sagittarius A* ("Sagittarius A-star"). "A CHANDRA STUDY OF SAGITTARIUS A EAST: A SUPERNOVA REMNANT REGULATING THE ACTIVITY OF OUR GALACTIC CENTER? Fortunately, we are close to a particular black hole known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced a-star), and by studying it we can hopefully learn more about these engines of galaxies. Still, we know the monster is hiding somewhere out there, 26,000 light-years away, even if it is shrouded in dust and gas. Ghez and Genzel share the award for their discovery of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole that lurks at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Sagittarius A* and black holes of the like are dubbed "supermassive" for a reason — they are billions of times more massive than the sun. A neutron star can also merge with a black hole to make a bigger black hole, or two black holes can collide. When the EHT project kicked off in 2017, the group of astronomers focused their attention Messier 87 and Sagittarius A* – the black hole in the heart of … Based on mass and increasingly precise radius limits, astronomers have concluded that Sagittarius A* is the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole. From examining the Keplerian orbit of S2, they determined the mass of Sagittarius A* to be 2.6±0.2 million solar masses, confined in a volume with a radius no more than 17 light-hours (120 AU). q and v are the pericenter distance in AU and pericenter speed in percent of the speed of light,[49] and Δ indicates the standard deviation of the associated quantities. Tp is the epoch of pericenter passage, P is the orbital period in years and Kmag is the K-band apparent magnitude of the star. Ghez … [14][15] a, e, i, Ω and ω are standard orbital elements, with a measured in arcseconds. Sagittarius A*, the black hole located in Milky Way 25,000 light-years away from Earth, may be closer, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a better subject to photograph. An active watch is maintained for the possibility of stars approaching the event horizon close enough to be disrupted, but none of these stars are expected to suffer that fate. The supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. Supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Artist impression of the accretion of gas cloud G2 onto Sgr A*. The proper motion of Sgr A* is approximately −2.70 mas per year for the right ascension and −5.6 mas per year for the declination. The discovery lends weight to Einstein's theory of relativity. Everything is silent in a grave. [59], Nothing was observed during and after the closest approach of the cloud to the black hole, which was described as a lack of "fireworks" and a "flop". Jack Ciurlo Scientists have discovered a new class of celestial objects orbiting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. This simulation shows the orbits of stars very close to Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. [60] Astronomers from the UCLA Galactic Center Group published observations obtained on March 19 and 20, 2014, concluding that G2 was still intact (in contrast to predictions for a simple gas cloud hypothesis) and that the cloud was likely to have a central star. In November 2004 a team of astronomers reported the discovery of a potential intermediate-mass black hole, referred to as GCIRS 13E, orbiting 3 light-years from Sagittarius A*. Emission from highly energetic electrons very close to the black hole was visible as three prominent bright flares. These figures given are approximate, the formal uncertainties being 12.6±9.3 AU and 23,928±8,840 km/s. [35][36], Assuming that general relativity is still a valid description of gravity near the event horizon, the Sagittarius A* radio emissions are not centered on the black hole, but arise from a bright spot in the region around the black hole, close to the event horizon, possibly in the accretion disc, or a relativistic jet of material ejected from the disc. "Black Hole Fails to Destroy Mystery Cosmic Cloud". Sgr A can’t be seen in optical wavelengths because it is hidden from view by large dust clouds in the Milky Way’s spiral arms. They also determined the distance from Earth to the Galactic Center (the rotational center of the Milky Way), which is important in calibrating astronomical distance scales, as (8.0±0.6)×103 parsecs. 2004 paper deducing mass of central black hole from orbits of 7 stars, The Proper Motion of Sgr A* and the Mass of Sgr A*, Magnetospheric eternally collapsing object, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sagittarius_A*&oldid=994436326, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Two groups—in Germany and the U.S.—monitored the orbits of individual stars very near to the black hole and used, This page was last edited on 15 December 2020, at 18:39. The mass of Sagittarius A* has been estimated in two different ways: The comparatively small mass of this supermassive black hole, along with the low luminosity of the radio and infrared emission lines, imply that the Milky Way is not a Seyfert galaxy.[10]. This video sequence shows the motion of the dusty cloud G2 as it closes in on, and then passes, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It is conjectured that Sgr A East is the remnant of the explosion of a star that was gravitationally compressed as it made a close approach to the central black hole.[2]. [6][7], In September 2019, scientists found that Sagittarius A* had been consuming nearby matter at a much faster rate than usual over the previous year. The center of the Milky Way galaxy, with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), located in the middle, is revealed in these images. [10] Several teams of researchers have attempted to image Sgr A* in the radio spectrum using very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI). Specifically, the photo will be of "Sagittarius A," the supermassive black hole that's at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. [13], In 2017, direct radio images were taken of Sagittarius A* and M87* by the Event Horizon Telescope. First noticed as something unusual in images of the center of the Milky Way in 2002,[50] the gas cloud G2, which has a mass about three times that of Earth, was confirmed to be likely on a course taking it into the accretion zone of Sgr A* in a paper published in Nature in 2012. NRAO: From 1970 barrack Bellic and Robert brown watched Sagittarius by NRAO (National radio astronomy observatory) baseline interferometer and on 13th February 1974, they explore very complex and bright elements and guessed a black hole situated at Sagittarius. Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy, taken with NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. For this reason, it is also known as the "Minispiral". Ultimately, what is seen is not the black hole itself, but observations that are consistent only if there is a black hole present near Sgr A*. [12] At a distance of 26,000 light-years, this yields a diameter of 60 million kilometres. [54], The average rate of accretion onto Sgr A* is unusually small for a black hole of its mass[55] and is only detectable because it is so close to Earth. Credit: ESO, This simulation shows a gas cloud, discovered in 2011, as it passes close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. [7], Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery that Sgr A* is a supermassive compact object, for which a black hole is the only currently known explanation. [4] Sagittarius A* (abbreviated Sgr A*) is agreed to be the most plausible candidate for the location of this supermassive black hole. These exactly match theoretical predictions for … estimated the object's mass at 4.31±0.38 million solar masses. Sagittarius A*, officially abbreviated as Sgr A* and colloquially as SagA*, is the system in the Galactic Centre region that is recognized as the exact centre of the Milky Way galaxy. Instead, they're looking at the matter around that black hole. [37] Simulations of alternative theories of gravity depict results that may be difficult to distinguish from GR. [12], Recent lower resolution observations revealed that the radio source of Sagittarius A* is symmetrical. suggested in 2014 that G2 is not a gas cloud but rather a pair of binary stars that had been orbiting the black hole in tandem and merged into an extremely large star.[52][63]. [43], In July 2019, astronomers reported finding a star, S5-HVS1, traveling 1,755 km/s (3.93 million mph). Mergers like these also make black holes quickly, and produce ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. [38] However, a 2018 paper predicts an image of Sagittarius A* that is in agreement with recent observations; in particular, it explains the small angular size and the symmetrical morphology of the source.[39]. For a black hole of around 4 million solar masses, this corresponds to a size of approximately 52 μas, which is consistent with the observed overall size of about 50 μas. SiO masers were used to align NIR images with radio observations, as they can be observed in both NIR and radio bands. Although we can’t see a black hole, … [20][21] The name Sgr A* was coined by Brown in a 1982 paper because the radio source was "exciting", and excited states of atoms are denoted with asterisks.[22][23]. Sgr A* is monitored on a daily basis by the X-ray telescope of the Swift satellite. [28] S175 passed within a similar distance. The star is in the Grus (or Crane) constellation in the southern sky, and about 29,000 light-years from Earth, and may have been propelled out of the Milky Way galaxy after interacting with Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.[44][45]. On top of these large scale structures (of the order of a few light-years in size), many smaller cloudlets and holes inside the large clouds can be seen. These three overlap: Sagittarius A East is the largest, West appears off-center within East, and A* is at the center of West. [12] If the apparent position of Sagittarius A* were exactly centered on the black hole, it would be possible to see it magnified beyond its size, because of gravitational lensing of the black hole. This is a rapidly changing field—in 2011, the orbits of the most prominent stars then known were plotted in the diagram at right, showing a comparison between their orbits and various orbits in the solar system. This can be identified as a supermassive black hole. The stellar orbits in the Galactic Center show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt. Get Breaking News … Sagittarius A or Sgr A is a complex radio source at the center of the Milky Way which contains a supermassive black hole. The total luminosity from this outburst (L≈1,5×1039 erg/s) is estimated to be a million times stronger than the current output from Sgr A* and is comparable with a typical active galactic nucleus. In the popular imagination, it was thou… [60][62], Professor Andrea Ghez et al. "[31], On January 5, 2015, NASA reported observing an X-ray flare 400 times brighter than usual, a record-breaker, from Sgr A*. It is home to the only known Supermassive Black Hole, as well as a white B-type star called Source 2. [25] The observations of S2 used near-infrared (NIR) interferometry (in the K-band, i.e. [30] Reinhard Genzel, team leader of the research, said the study has delivered "what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that supermassive black holes do really exist. Observations of several stars orbiting Sagittarius A*, particularly star S2, have been used to determine the mass and upper limits on the radius of the object. A black hole is a region of space packed with so much mass that its own gravity prevents anything from escaping—even a ray of light. Sgr A West has the appearance of a three-arm spiral, from the point of view of the Earth. More mysterious are the giant bla… [51] Predictions of its orbit suggested it would make its closest approach to the black hole (a perinigricon) in early 2014, when the cloud was at a distance of just over 3,000 times the radius of the event horizon (or ≈260 AU, 36 light-hours) from the black hole. According to general relativity, this would result in a ring-like structure, which has a diameter about 5.2 times the black hole's Schwarzschild radius. Sgr A West is surrounded by a massive, clumpy torus of cooler molecular gas, the Circumnuclear Disk (CND). Accomplishing what was previously thought to be impossible, a team of international astronomers has captured an image of a black hole’s silhouette. Using the GRAVITY interferometer and the four telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to create a virtual telescope 130 metres in diameter, astronomers detected clumps of gas moving at about 30% of the speed of light. At the center of the our galaxy, with a mass roughly 4 millions times that of our sun, is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. Researchers speculated that this could mean that the black hole is entering a new phase, or that Sagittarius A* had stripped the outer layer of G2 when it passed through.[8]. These newly identified black holes were found within three light years — a relatively short distance on cosmic scales — of the supermassive black hole at our Galaxy's center known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). One star, designated S2, was calculated to orbit Sgr A* at speeds of over 5,000 kilometers per second at its closest approach. Black holes are often accompanied by quasars. However, it would take 50 to 100 times more energy than a standard supernova explosion to create a structure of this size and energy. Astronomers now have evidence that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. It was thought that the passage of G2 in 2013 might offer astronomers the chance to learn much more about how material accretes onto supermassive black holes. Its orbital period is 12 years, but an extreme eccentricity of 0.985 gives it the close approach and high velocity.[48]. The black hole is 53.49 million light-years away from Earth. [58], As the cloud approached the black hole, Dr. Daryl Haggard said "It's exciting to have something that feels more like an experiment", and hoped that the interaction would produce effects that would provide new information and insights. They have been estimated to amount for about 20 solar masses each. In the below table, id1 is the star's name in the Gillessen catalog and id2 in the catalog of the University of California, Los Angeles. The results were that the spiral pitch angle of the arms is 7.3 ± 1.5 degrees, and the half-width of the arms of the Milky Way were found to be 0.2 kpc. In a paper published on October 31, 2018, the discovery of conclusive evidence that Sagittarius A* is a black hole was announced. Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-star”) is the most plausible candidate for the location of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. The Western Arc (outside the field of view of the image shown in the right) is interpreted as the ionized inner surface of the CND. The Northern Arm appears as a very bright North—South ridge of emission, but it extends far to the East and can be detected as a dim extended source. Evidence of the existence of black holes – mysterious places in space where nothing, not even light, can escape – has existed for quite some time, and astronomers have long observed the effects on the surroundings of these phenomena. For comparison, Earth is 150 million kilometres from the Sun, and Mercury is 46 million kilometres from the Sun at perihelion. The nearest arm from the Sun is around 1.4 ± 0.2 kpc away. The rapid motion of S2 (and other nearby stars) easily stood out against slower-moving stars along the line-of-sight so these could be subtracted from the images. Since modern FSD technology made it possible to travel the extreme depths of space, Sag-A* has been visited by hundreds of explorers. 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