Sagittarius A*: What is that thing in close orbit?

[Haggis McMoose]

Hello fellow commanders,

when doing the great pilgrimage to the center, I noticed a strange little orbit line around the supermassive sphere of dooooooom:

Comparison (same perspective and distance, Sagittarius A* spoiler, duh):

First, no orbit lines:

Spoiler

Same position, orbit lines:

Spoiler

I tried to figure out what might be circling around the greatest maul of utter destruction you can find in the Milkyway, but couldn't get closer than 41 ls without frying my own butt...

Spoiler

I don't see anything unusual (oh yeah, nothing worth my notice here ), so what's that orbit for?

Haggis McMoose,
ogling orbits

EDIT: I'm still in the vicinity, so if anybody has a bright idea how to get more information, let me know... and NO: "Follow the orbit, you will hit the object eventually!" is no valid response in that case!

 

[xeeleeqax]

could you not get close enough?

 

[Haggis McMoose]

could you not get close enough?

It may have escaped your notice, but the inconspicuous blackish phenomenon casually lingering in the depicted panorama imposed on me certain unpleasant restrictions concerning my unhindered approach... aside from that, valid objection made...

Haggis McMoose,
weeping waterfalls

 

[Kancro Vantas]

Three things come to mind...

Actually wobbling of Sag A* due to gravitational forces around....(I know, I totally made that up just now, dude)

The Event Horizon Ship is calling you from inside

And of course, the most logical one: THARGOIDS!

 

[Whiterose]

perhaps the black hole is capturing orbit lines....

 

[xeeleeqax]

sorry old boy I was'nt intending to be facetious. I was just wondering if you could of got any closer to see what was making that orbit line. But like you say you got as close as you could. I read a book once about a Alien culture that used a black hole as a computer, perhaps its matrioshka brain that the thargoids control???

 

[magillag]

Sagittarius A? I'm guessing it's Sagittarius A.

 

[trollson]

The key observation here is that the estimate for Sag A* event-horizon (Schwarzschild Radius) is ~40Ls, and, as you are observing from 43Ls (brave? foolish? brown trousers?) the entire orbit is within the event-horizon.

Therefore the orbit is that of Sag A* itself. If you look closely the orbit intersects the position of Sag A* given by the lenticular at the right edge.

Sag A* is known to be orbited by a number of stars in the galactic core - this is how it was detected in the first place. Presumably the orbit of Sag A* is the counterpoint to one of these other stars (assuming ED builds on 2-body systems).

The following is an image from Wikipedia of stars detected orbiting the "invisible" Sag A*:

View attachment 32362

For reference, the star S2 has a closest approach to Sag A* of ~60kLs.

 

[xeeleeqax]

Cool dry as a squeezed out sponge but cool explanation, thargoid blackhole computers - sorry been out in deep space a long time....

 

[Haggis McMoose]

A short update: I asked aunt wiki what the Schwarzschild radius for that mass might be: The corresponding Schwarzschild radius is 0.08 AU
Ok, 0.08 AU... 1 AU is 499 ls, so 0.08 AU equals 39.92 ls... NO WAY I GET A SINGLE METER CLOSER TO IT, DO IT YOURSELVES, MAYBE YOU GET A DARWIN AWARD!

Ooooh, I get the feeling my initial approach to 41 ls might have been a bit... daring. Ah, nothing a stiff drink cannot wash away!

Haggis McMoose,
drowning dumbness

edit: Ninja'ed by trollson! Hmm, Source 2 is some 60 kls away, let's see if they are roughly on the same plane... assuming 2-body motion, this should be the most likely partner... back in a minute! (If you don't hear from me within the hour, remember my spaghettified ashes...)

 

[Haggis McMoose]

2-body motion with partners Sagittarius A* and Source 2 seems to get the trophy:

Spoiler

Position of Source 2 and orientation of the orbit in question do indeed correspond... but shouldn't Sagittarius A* be located more to the left? Ah, probably just a matter of perspective, let's call it solved!

Haggis McMoose,
Hugging the humongous

 

[Haggis McMoose]

FINAL NOTE:

I couldn't leave the core without being sure about the correctness of Sagittarius A*'s and Source 2's 2-body Kepler movement, so I decided to try and get a perfect alignment between the two of them (preferrably without getting myself killed, Karl Schwarzschild help me... ).

The following screenshots were taken from the same spot (on the imaginary connecting line between the 2 mass centers), orbit lines were turned on:

The first 2 show my alignment respective to the masses:

Spoiler

Number 3 depicts the perfect convergence of Sagittarius A*'s orbit line into Source 2's orbit line.

Spoiler

Now that should be sufficient proof...

On to new adventures, on to the Great Annihilator! ...pfff, Great Annihilator, what a presumptious name... WHAT CAN POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Haggis McMoose,
Daredevil of Dumbness

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELPFUL CONTRIBUTIONS. YOU ARE A GREAT COMMUNITY!

 

[Berty Dastard]

You could have a closer look by selecting a system to jump to directly opposite your position. Fire up the jump drive and you can do a fly by. If you record in ultra high definition we will have an answer with your slo-mo replay of ....


Do it. Do it

 

[Haggis McMoose]

You could have a closer look by selecting a system to jump to directly opposite your position. Fire up the jump drive and you can do a fly by. If you record in ultra high definition we will have an answer with your slo-mo replay of ....


Do it. Do it

Good sir,

given the probability of an outcome resulting in my skinny yet beautiful butt feeding the galactic "statue of obesity" one baryon at a time, I am inclined to turn down your suggestion... oh, you added: Do it. Do it. Now thaaat changes everything!

Haggis McMoose,
black hole happysnack

 

[xeeleeqax]

Fly Safely Haggis!

 

[Bam]

I had to read that 3 times to get my head round that, but I do like the graph. You can't beat a good graph, especially when you throw in the word lenticular.
Not many games can give you such an insight into astrophysics.

I agree with Kancro Vantas though sorry, its Thargoids.

 

[hoppingdeth]

what happens if you fly in to it?!

 

[Perseus]

Great stuff, Haggis and Trollson! Next big picture event is when something substantial falls in, like a dust cloud or star.
Maybe a platform should be built out there; it certainly has enough visitors. If everyone took some material with them on their treks I reckon we could have a platform up and running in a few years time.

 

[acid_byte]

Ooops, sorry, I thought I flushed it right...

 

[Haggis McMoose]

xeeleeqax
Fly Safely Haggis!

Oh but I will, no worries about me...

I think it's time to return home and scan some stellar objects in civilized space, maybe binary plantetoids with a 309-310 Kelvin perfume atmosphere, surface pressure may exceed 1 atmosphere... This Universal Cartographics paycheck has to go somewhere, right?

Spoiler

Haggis McMoose,
starlet surveyor