Final Notes - GCNEWS, Vol. 10, December 1999

GCNEWS

A Newsletter for Galactic Center Research
This Volume was edited by Angela Cotera & Heino Falcke
email: gcnews@aoc.nrao.edu

Volume 10, December 1999 - Final Notes

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And Finally ... !

Fulivo Melia and Heino Falcke are going to write a review for Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics about the Galactic Center with special emphasis on Sgr A*, its interaction with the environment, and theoretical models. They would appreciate any preprints that might be of relevance for this article. Of course, a primary source of information will also be GCNEWS, and every article that has been or will be submitted will get noticed. Please remember to include a web link with your submission so that the full paper can be retrieved.

The following is a question GCNEWS got from an amateur astronomer and the answer we got from Susanne Hüttemeister (University of Bonn). Anyone is invited to comment or provide corrections.

Dear Jim,

GCNews forwarded me your question

> Can you tell me which Satellite Galaxy is moving fastest towards the
> Galactic center?

My answer is a little spontaneous and not totally reliable, but I
think that the Phoenix dwarf galaxy is a good candidate. This is a
rather distant and intrinsically faint object (D ~ 450 kpc, absolute
magnitude -10.1, an intermediate type between a dwarf irregular and a
dwarf spheroidal). It approaches the sun, but other dwarfs have far
larger negative velocities. However, if you correct for the motion of
the sun, Phoenix ends up (at least according to some models) as the
galaxy with the largest residual negative velocity.

Other "high velocity" objects are e.g. IC 1613 or LGS3, but these
belong to the M31 group (within the local group), they are not really
satellites of the Milky Way.

Susanne

Chandra has observed the GC for 50 ksec. First results are expected at the next AAS meeting.
The following two sessions at the AAS meeting in Atlanta will focus on the GC:
Session 5. Looking Towards The Galactic Center Display, Wednesday, 9:20am-6:30pm, Grand Hall
Session 62. Sgr A* and Milky Way Oral, Thursday, January 13, 2000, 2:00-3:30pm, Regency VII
The program of these sessions can be viewed at http://www.aas.org/meetings/aas195/program
For those of you who have read or participated in the discussion at GC98 in Tucson about the evidence for a dark mass at the Galactic Center and remember that one big concern was the straight paths of the fast moving stars we have some news: at a recent ESO workshop in Garching, Andrea Ghez reported the finding of curvature in the stellar ``orbits'' in her most recent Keck observations. And guess what .... the stars curve in the right direction, i.e. towards Sgr A*! Think of all the problems that would have been raised had they turned the other way or kept going straight ...
Heino Falcke has produced a little electronic slide show about the Galactic Center balck hole for educational purposes. It features a number of nice pictures and animations together with some (mostly) simple explanations. Check it out at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/staff/hfalcke/bh.
GCNEWS is looking for an eager young grad student or postdoc to help us get the newsletter out on a regular basis. The job will take about 8-10 hours every four months, has absolutely no money attached, but the volunteer will become a co-editor of the newsletter. Here is your chance to volunteer (before we draft you)!

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Credits:

Editors of this Volume: Angela Cotera & Heino Falcke
The GCNEWS Logo at the top of this page shows a 20cm radio map of the GC (Sgr A) made by Yusef-Zadeh & Morris.
The GCNEWS newsletters, newsflashes and web pages are based on scripts originally developed by Heino Falcke.
Internet access for GCNEWS is currently sponsored by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro NM/USA.

Page currently maintained by L. O. Sjouwerman. File last modified on Monday 04 August 2003 [09:57 MDT].

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