National Science Foundation | Science Nation | 19 July 2010
FLAMINGOS-2 Achieves First Light MilestoneAstronomers use infrared "eyes" to shed light on these enigmatic cosmic structures
A new infrared image has captured the center of our galaxy in never-before-seen detail--showing stars and gas swirling into the super massive black hole that lurks at the heart of our own Milky Way.
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With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), University of Florida astronomer Steve Eikenberry and his colleagues are building and operating a new class of infrared telescope instruments designed to peel back the layers of mystery shrouding black holes.
One of the major questions: How do black holes form? ... the structure of a black hole is not complicated ... But, finer points, such as how black holes interact with their host galaxies, are anything but simple. These are some of the questions Eikenberry is exploring using a new instrument called FLAMINGOS-2 that was built for the Gemini South Telescope in Chile.
FLAMINGOS is short for the Florida Multi-object Infrared Grism Observing Spectrograph. Images and data gathered by it are providing astronomers with some answers about the structure and evolution of a black hole.
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Eikenberry also studies smaller, so-called "stellar mass" black holes. A typical galaxy is chock full of them. They are born when a big star dies in a huge explosion called a supernova. He and his team have used FLAMINGOS-2 to study just such stars in the Tarantula Nebula.
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Eikenberry says that big or small, black holes likely function much the same. He's hoping to "shed some light" on how they work. It would seem black holes have really sucked him in.
These FLAMINGOS-2 3-color composite images combine the J-band (1.25 microns, blue), H-band (1.65 microns, green) and Ks-band (2.2 microns, red). The images have a total exposure (integration) of less than 10 minutes.
Credit: Gemini Observatory/University of Florida/AURA/Anthony Gonzalez
Gemini Observatory | FLAMINGOS-2 | 15 Sept 2009
Sophisticated telescope camera debuts with peek at nest of black holes
University of Florida | Astronomy Department | Infrared Astrophysics Group | 15 Sept 2009
