Newcomer / Intro Just a quick dumb question about Sagittarius A*: Why the asterisk?

I thought that the stars in galaxies had been observed not to be moving in proper orbits around galaxies and this observation lead to the idea of dark matter which is supposed to be dragging them around.
That's right - stars towards the edges of most observed galaxies are moving faster than they should if the overall mass of the galaxy is calculated based on the observable matter. Under contemporary understanding of gravity and its relationship to matter, 84% of the mass of the Milky Way can not be observed.

At galactic scales, something is different. If we assume it's matter, it must be "dark" matter that can not be observed in the EM spectrum.
 
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There are galaxies that possibly don't have SBHs in the middle and if you look at them, although they are holding together by mutual gravitational fields, there is no structure and there most definitely is no spin. That's why we have a different name for them -globular clusters. Because that's what they are - a blob of stars. It also has a "centre of mass" but it is not orbiting it.

Galaxies don't need to have a particular structure...
 
Globular clusters are tiny in comparison to a grand spiral like the Milky Way. Moreover, the very Wikipedia page you approve of notes that irregular galaxies are typically much smaller than grand spirals and therefore prone to being distorted by gravitational interactions with their much larger cousins.

To return to the central point of contention, the stars in the Milky Way orbit a barycentre - the centre of mutual attraction; they do not orbit Sag A*.
 
Thank you for proving my point that without a central black hole and fully formed core BY said black hole, galaxies are simply a chaotic mess without any common barycentre. That was exactly my point.

But some do have a supermassive black hole and they are not irregular because of their lack of it.
To address the second part of your question: The shape of the galaxy is not set by the central black hole. This is because the gravitational sphere of influence of a black hole is tiny compared to a galaxy.
 
Yo folks - I'm down at Robardin Rock and about to head to Sag A*; having dinner first.
I'm curious: Why is it Sag A*, and not Sag A? What is the significance of the asterisk?

Thanks. :)

It is not a star it is a globe that is pure gravitatoin that has no solid surface, but the question is how does this phenomenon control black matter in our galaxy that to keep it together ?
 
It is not a star it is a globe that is pure gravitatoin that has no solid surface, but the question is how does this phenomenon control black matter in our galaxy that to keep it together ?
Answer that question, and you're in line for a Nobel prize. Dark Matter and Dark Energy are the two great unknowns in (astro)physics. We assume there is something like Darnk Matter because our observations deviate form our calculations (or vice versa, depending on whether you're a theoretical astrophysicist or an observational one).
The trouble is, observations made on Earth match the calculations to the umpteenth decimal, pretty much ruling out that there is something wrong with the calculations here on Earth. Which leaves us with the two options:
a) there's something out there we can't see directly, and haven't yet managed to find on Earth or
b) our basic assumption of physics (pretty much the basic assumption), that physics works the same everywhere in the Universe, is wrong
 
It is not a star it is a globe that is pure gravitatoin that has no solid surface, but the question is how does this phenomenon control black matter in our galaxy that to keep it together ?

It doesn't.

We don't understand black matter and dark energy - there are conflicting theories - personally I am drawn to (sorry) that of Entropic Gravity (see Eric Verlinde).

apropos of the preceding discussion: - Old galaxies have not produced a collapsing-spin (think of a skater spinning) do not exhibit spiral forms. With spiral galaxies the effect of collapse (or the determinant of that collapse?) is to produce / caused by a supermassive black hole at the centre. Elliptical and lenticular galaxies don't have this motion and have no (or little) star formation. Hubble proposed that elliptical galaxies would evolve into spiral ones but that has been proven wrong as stars in non-spiral galaxies are a) mainly old b) have motions that are not rotating about the centre. The disparity in measured radial velocities in the arms of spiral galaxies to that predicted by maths is what gave rise to the presumption of a gravitational component produced by matter which we could not detect - the "Dark Matter".
 
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