(N.Morgan) Could we be heading into another great cosmic event, with the coming of Spring? Are we in for some sort of inner galactic event no one could have predicted? Could a Superwave have a trigger effect on Earth? Is that a cloud or a star? This is exactly what one of our very own astrobites authors, Kim Phifer, is asking about for the galactic center source G2. Discovered just last year and discussed in this astrobite, G2 was originally thought to be a gas cloud with a mass of about 3 earth masses headed directly toward our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, Sgr A*.
Is that a cloud or a star? This is exactly what one of our very own astrobites authors, Kim Phifer, is asking about for the galactic center source G2. Discovered just last year and discussed in this astrobite, G2 was originally thought to be a gas cloud with a mass of about 3 earth masses headed directly toward our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, Sgr A*.
However, G2 might be something quite different as previously suggested by this article in which the authors suggest that G2 might be a low-mass star with a strong stellar wind which produces a bow shock as it orbits the black hole. Another possibility is that G2 may be a star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk as discussed in this previous astrobite. The question that these authors aim to answer is: Is G2 a gas cloud or a star? In this article, the authors look at both spectral and imaging data to determine the orbital properties and spatial shape of G2 to determine the answer to this question…