The Structure and Variability of Sagittarius A*: Zooming in to the Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center

2002/03/04 by Feng Yuan, Yuan, Feng, Jun-Hui Zhao +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0203050

12 pages, 3 figures, to appear in "Astronomy and Chinese Astronomy: Present and Future --Mainland and Overseas Young Chinese Astronomer Colloquium"

arxiv created 2002/03/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

The Galactic center provides a unique astrophysical laboratory for us to study various astrophysical processes. In this paper, we review and outline the latest results from observations of Sgr~A^* in terms of source structure and variations in flux density. Sgr~A^* phenomenon represents a typical case of low radiative efficiency accretion flow surrounding a supermassive black hole in low luminosity AGNs. Many pending astrophysical problems found from observations of Sgr A^* have challenged the existing astrophysical theories. Current theoretical models of Sgr A^* are also reviewed.

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