Physics Program Presents
Zoology of Compact Objects and X-Ray Binaries in the Center of the Milky Way
Friday, October 28, 2022
Hegeman 107
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Kaya Mori, Columbia University
The Galactic Center (GC) is a unique environment with the highest concentration of stars, gas and compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) in our galaxy. The central parsec region contains about 10 million stars, while the closest star to Earth is located at about 1 parsec away. Due to the long distance (8 kiloparsecs) and a large amount of gas and dust in between, the GC region is invisible in the optical band and its true nature remained elusive for many years. Over the last two decades, a new generation of radio, infrared and X-ray telescopes has revolutionized our understanding of the GC region, as manifested by the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for the discovery of a 4 million solar mass black hole at Sagittarius A*. In the X-ray band, NASA’s Chandra telescope detected over 10,000 X-ray emitting sources in the GC region. I will present our recent investigations on the X-ray sources, most of which contain compact objects, in the central parsec to over 100 parsecs away from Sagittarius A*. I will highlight several exciting discoveries and discuss some implications on how the formation, dynamics and evolution of compact objects are controlled by immense gravity from the supermassive black hole and interactions with stars.For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Hegeman 107