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ESO 41/08 - Associated Images

18 November 2008
For Immediate Release

Astronomers detect matter torn apart by black hole

This is a colour composite image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy, about 26 000 light years from Earth. Giant clouds of gas and dust are shown in blue, as detected by the LABOCA instrument on the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope at submillimetre wavelengths (870 micron). The image also contains near-infrared data from the 2MASS project at K-band (in red), H-band (in green), and J-band (in blue). The image shows a region approximately 100 light-years wide.
Credit: ESO/APEX/2MASS/A. Eckart et al. 

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This series of three images shows an artist’s impression of a bright “blob” of gas in the disk of material surrounding the black hole in the centre of our Galaxy, Sagittarius A*. This blob of material is responsible for the flares detected by the researchers. As the blob orbits the black hole, it is stretched out, and this expansion over time causes the delay between flares being detected at near-infrared wavelengths (with the VLT) and at submillimetre wavelengths (with APEX).
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

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This is a combined image showing both of the above images side-by-side. Left: Submillimetre and infrared view of the Galactic Centre Right: Flares from the disk of material surrounding the black hole Sagittarius A*.
Credit: ESO/APEX/2MASS/A. Eckart et al. , ESO/L. Calçada

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