Editorial - GCNEWS, Vol. 26, April 2007

GCNEWS

A Newsletter for Galactic Center Research
Currently edited by Sera Markoff, Loránt Sjouwerman, Joseph Lazio, Cornelia Lang, Rainer Schödel, Masaaki Sakano & Feng Yuan
email: gcnews@aoc.nrao.edu



Volume 26, April 2007 - In the News

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In the News - Joseph Lazio & Sera Markoff

Our ability to observe the Galactic Center in ever-increasing detail has made it a field unto itself, driving the creation of this forum as well as the interest in the frequent GC-related meetings (three of which are listed in this issue!). However, Sgr A* itself is also important in the greater context of accreting supermassive black holes and their apparently cyclical accretion/growth cycles. To understand black hole growth, we need to understand black hole feeding, and Sgr A*'s current ``starvation phase'' can provide clues about how AGN evolve over time. If we further want to understand how Sgr A* fits into the greater scheme of accreting supermassive black holes, we need to study samples of nearbly galaxies with similar mass distributions. In this Volume, we are pleased to be able to present a brief summary of some of the recent pioneering work by Jenny Greene and Luis Ho, on the mass function of these nearby members of Sgr A*'s extended family.

Though 2006 may have been a year of Galactic center meetings, this year appears to be quite active as well. There were a number of results reported at the American Astronomical Society's winter meeting, which we summarize here, and we know of a number of meetings already in which the Galactic center will be taking an important, if not leading, role.

Finally, we have 18 abstracts submitted for this issue! Thanks to all of these authors for sharing their work. Please continue to submit your recent publication information to GC News (including the link to astro-ph).

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