The Awakening of the Super-Massive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy

We’re requesting one year of half-time support for postdoctoral fellow Daryl Haggard. Daryl will be working on all aspects of correlating X-ray data taken with the XMM, SWIFT, and HST. Daryl is an expert in X-ray observations of the Galactic center and she has been leading Chandra and SWIFT observations to monitor the G2 cloud in six different epochs during the pericenter passage of the G2 cloud in 2013. The 2013 observations will provide an important time baseline when combined with the 2014 data taken with the XMM and HST. The Co-I Farhad Yusef-Zadeh will apply for observing time using radio and sub mm telescopes (VLA, ALMA) to obtain wavelength coverage. The Co-I Farhad Yusef-Zadeh will work with the other Co-Is in modeling the observed flux from Sgr A*. One of the models that we have proposed is that the G2 cloud runs into a jet from Sgr a*. There is a prediction of the light curve and the newly obtained datat will be used to test the model of the encounter of the G2 cloud and a jet from Srg A*. The timeline starts for us when we first observe with the HST. It will take about a year to do the analysis and modeling.