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Sagittarius A* in 60 Seconds
Narrator (Megan Watzke, CXC): Astronomers have long known that the supermassive black
hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is a particularly poor eater. The fuel for
this black hole, known as Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A* for short), comes from powerful winds
blown off nearby stars. Scientists have previously calculated that Sgr A* should consume about
one percent of the fuel carried in the winds. However, it now appears that Sgr A* consumes
much less than even that. It only ingests about one percent of that one percent. Why
does it consume so little? A theoretical model based on these new deep data seen in this
Chandra image may provide the answer. It turns out that there is an inner and outer region
around the black hole. Pressure flowing outward causes nearly all of the gas to move away
from the black hole. This in turn starves the black hole of much of its fuel, and this
is why astronomers have seen so little activity from this, our closest supermassive black
hole.