Sagittarius A*
Sign in to savethe supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy
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Sagittarius A* is the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. It matters because studying it helps us understand how galaxies form and behave, and it represents one of the most extreme objects in the universe.
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Sagittarius A*, abbreviated as Sgr A* (/ˈsædʒ ˈeɪ stɑːr/ SADGE-AY-star), is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. Viewed from Earth, it is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of the ecliptic, visually close to the Butterfly Cluster (M6) and Lambda Scorpii. Sagittarius A* is a bright and very compact astronomical radio source.
In May 2022, astronomers released the first image of the accretion disk around the event horizon of Sagittarius A*, using the Event Horizon Telescope, a world-wide network of radio observatories. This is the second confirmed image of a black hole, after Messier 87's supermassive black hole in 2019. The black hole itself is not seen; as light is incapable of escaping the immense gravitational force of a black hole, only nearby objects whose behavior is influenced by the black hole can be observed. The observed radio and infrared energy emanates from gas and dust heated to millions of degrees while falling into the black hole.