Giant Black Hole At Milky Way's Core Stays Slim

thomst writes "A team of researchers from Harvard and MIT announced at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society a new theoretical model of how the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way consumes gas from surrounding star clusters, based on a million seconds of observation by the orbital Chandra X-ray telescope. Astronomers had previously believed that the object, known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Star') consumed only around one percent of the gases it stripped from the star clusters around it, but the new model reduces its consumption to 0.01 percent (i.e. — two orders of magnitude). Physorg.com's uncredited reporter gets the story right, while space.com's Andrea Thomspon clearly doesn't understand the mechanism behind the phenomenon (essentially, thermal conduction from the extremely-hot accretion disk heats the surrounding gas, causing it to expand, and thus move away from Sagittarius A*'s gravity well)."

Comments

Clearly not named by a Canadian.

[drainbramage]

Then it would be Sagittarius A* eh?

Re:And let me be the first to say...

[Anonymous Coward]

After reading that yawner of a story, I am SO FUCKING GLAD I never pursued astro research after that summer of my junior year in college.

When you bought a dildo and started exploring Uranus, you mean?

should be called the 'Sagittarius A-Hole'

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously. How can you skip a joke like that? It's reaching out and grabbing you, pulling you in to never let go and never let anything escape.

PS: How much more do I have to type to get past the lameness filter?

A Rose By Any Other Name

[digitalgiblet]

>"Sagittarius A* (pronounced 'Sagittarius A-Star')"

So... it isn't a star but they call it A-Star?

Perhaps "The Saggitarius Object Formerly Known As A-Star"...

Re:7g of saturated fat

[MikeDirnt69]

"Low Fat Milky Way" sounds better to you?