A composite image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A. SOFIA found that magnetic fields, shown as streamlines, are strong enough to control the material moving around the black hole, even in the presence of enormous gravitational forces. SOFIA’s results can help answer long-standing, fundamental questions about the galactic center region: why the star formation rate is significantly lower than expected and why our galaxy’s black hole is quieter than those in other galaxies. SOFIA data is shown in green (37 microns) and dark blue (25 and 53 microns). The light blue is from Herschel Space Observatory (70 microns) and the gray is from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Additional Information
The Role of the Magnetic Field in the Galactic Center
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