how to plot a course to sagittarius a

How long does it take to get to Sagittarius A*?

Sagittarius A* is 25,900 light years from Sol. It will take roughly 700 jumps to reach the system with a 35-40 ly jump range, which means around 10 hours of travel time without any stops along the way; many pilots prefer to split the voyage into multiple segments over a period of several days or weeks.

What is Sagittarius A?

Sagittarius A (Sgr A) is a complex radio source located at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy.

How was Sagittarius A discovered?

Later observations showed that Sagittarius A actually consists of several overlapping sub-components; a bright and very compact component, Sgr A*, was discovered on February 13 and 15, 1974, by astronomers Bruce Balick and Robert Brown using the baseline interferometer of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

What are the three components of Sagittarius A?

The three components of Sagittarius A overlap. The supernova remnant Sgr A East is the largest component. The spiral structure Sgr A West appears within Sgr A East, while Sgr A* lies at the centre of Sgr A West. The supernova remnant Sagittarius A East is a non-thermal radio source located within parsecs of the Milky Way’s centre.

Who was the first person to enter the Sagittarius system?

Sagittarius A* was documented by Universal Cartographics at some point, but remained uncharted and unexplored until December 1, 3300, when CMDR Zulu Romeo, piloting the Cobra MkIII Useless Reptile, became the first human to enter and scan the system while scouting a route for the First Great Expedition.

What is the difference between Sagittarius A and Sagittarius A?

It is important to note the distinction between Sagittarius A and Sagittarius A*. The former is a complex radio source, while the latter is the supermassive black hole that is part of that source.

Where is Sagittarius A?

Sagittarius A. Sagittarius A (Sgr A) is a complex radio source located at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. It lies in the direction of Sagittarius constellation, near the border with Scorpius. The radio source consists of the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East, the spiral structure Sagittarius A West, and a bright compact radio source at ...

Why is Sagittarius a west?

Sagittarius A West. The spiral structure Sagittarius A West is sometimes called the “Minispiral” because it appears as a three-arm spiral when observed from Earth. The Sagittarius A West complex of ionized gas, here observed in the Bracket gamma line of ionized Hydrogen, has the apparent shape of a three-arm spiral.

Why is Sagittarius A* not exactly centred on the black hole?

If it were, we would be able to see the object magnified as a result of gravitational lensing, a phenomenon that occurs because light of a distant source gets lensed, or bent by the gravity of an exceptionally massive object in the foreground.

Where is the Sagittarius A East radio source?

The supernova remnant Sagittarius A East is a non-thermal radio source located within parsecs of the Milky Way’s centre. The size of its radio shell is the smallest of the known mixed-morphology supernova remnants.

Why do stars redden in the Galactic Plane?

The reddening of the stars here and along the Galactic Plane is due to scattering by the dust; it is the same process by which the sun appears to redden as it sets.

When was the motion of the star S2 reported?

Image: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay (STScI) and A. Fujii. The motion of the star S2 over a period of 10 years was reported on October 16, 2002 by an international team of scientists led by Rainer Schödel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

How fast is S2?

One of these stars, designated S2, was observed spinning around Sgr A* at speeds of over 5,000 km/s when it made its closest approach to the object. Sagittarius A* has a diameter of 44 million kilometres, roughly equalling the distance from Mercury to the Sun (46 million km).

Where is Sagittarius A located?

It is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of the ecliptic.

When was Sagittarius A discovered?

Later observations showed that Sagittarius A actually consists of several overlapping sub-components; a bright and very compact component Sgr A* was discovered on February 13 and 15, 1974, by astronomers Bruce Balick and Robert Brown using the baseline interferometer of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Why is SGR A called SGR A?

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. Detection of an unusually bright X-ray flare from Sgr A*. Since the 1980s it has been evident that the central component of Sgr A* is likely a black hole.

Why can't we see SGR A*?

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. Several teams of researchers have attempted to image Sgr A* in the radio spectrum using very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI).

How far is Mercury from the Sun?

For comparison, Earth is 150 million kilometres from the Sun, and Mercury is 46 million kilometres from the Sun at perihelion. 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. In 2017, direct radio images were taken of Sagittarius A* and M87* by ...

What are the stars in close orbit around Sagittarius?

There are a number of stars in close orbit around Sagittarius A*, which are collectively known as "S stars" in various catalogues. These stars are observed primarily in K band infrared wavelengths, as interstellar dust drastically limits visibility in visible wavelengths. 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. Since then, S62 and then S4714 have been found to approach even more closely than those stars.

How many stars are in the GCIRS 13E?

This black hole of 1,300 solar masses is within a cluster of seven stars.