HYBRID: OC ASTRONOMERS MONTHLY MEETING- A trip to the Center of our Galaxy

Orange County Astronomers Monthly General Meeting

Hybrid event by Orange County Astronomers
https://ocastronomers.org/

Date: June 13 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm PDT

Venue: Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University
336 N Center St, Orange, CA 92866

Speaker
Anna Ciurlo
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Other
"What's Up?"Michael Beckage from OCA

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This meeting’s speaker will present in person.

A trip to the Center of our Galaxy
The heart of the Milky Way is home to Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole approximately four million times the mass of the Sun. Although it remains largely quiet today, it is surrounded by a turbulent sea of gas, dust, and exotic objects that could one day trigger dramatic outbursts. This presentation delves into this extreme environment, exploring the large-scale gas clouds and the closer-in structures that fuel the black hole. It examines how molecular hydrogen manages to survive intense ultraviolet radiation and introduces a newly identified class of enigmatic objects orbiting perilously close to Sagittarius A*. Observed over two decades with the Keck Observatory, these objects may represent the remnants of stellar collisions or merged binaries, offering valuable insights into how matter behaves under immense gravitational forces. Mapping this region helps to illuminate the intricate interplay of stars, gas, and gravity at the core of the galaxy.

Anna Ciurlo’s research focuses on stars and gas around the supermassive black hole in the center of our Galaxy. Her work leverages high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy from large ground and space-based observatories like Keck and the JWST. She earned her PhD in astrophysics from the Sorbonne Paris Cité and pursued postdoctoral research at UCLA. She was an inaugural year Keck Visiting Scholar at Keck Observatory. Anna continues at UCLA as an assistant researcher and adjunct assistant professor in the Galactic Center Group.

This is a free and open to the public hybrid event, held both in-person and online. Due to the newly effective insurance requirements, we regret that we can not allow people under 18 on the Chapman Campus, they are welcome to attend online.