Rapid X-ray flaring from the direction of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre

被引:522
作者
Baganoff, FK [1 ]
Bautz, MW
Brandt, WN
Chartas, G
Feigelson, ED
Garmire, GP
Maeda, Y
Morris, M
Ricker, GR
Townsley, LK
Walter, F
机构
[1] MIT, Ctr Space Res, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
[2] Penn State Univ, Dept Astron & Astrophys, University Pk, PA 16802 USA
[3] Inst Space & Astronaut Sci, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 2298501, Japan
[4] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Phys & Astron, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA
[5] CALTECH, Dept Astron, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1038/35092510
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
The nuclei of most galaxies are now believed to harbour supermassive black holes(1). The motions of stars in the central few light years of our Milky Way Galaxy indicate the presence of a dark object with a mass of about 2.6 x 10(6) solar masses (refs 2, 3). This object is spatially coincident with the compact radio source Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) at the dynamical centre of the Galaxy, and the radio emission is thought to be powered by the gravitational potential energy released by matter as it accretes onto a supermassive black hole(4,5). Sgr A* is, however, much fainter than expected at all wavelengths, especially in X-rays, which has cast some doubt on this model. The first strong evidence for X-ray emission was found only recently(6). Here we report the discovery of rapid X-ray flaring from the direction of Sgr A*, which, together with the previously reported steady X-ray emission, provides compelling evidence that the emission is coming from the accretion of gas onto a supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre.
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收藏
页码:45 / 48
页数:4
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