Special Astrophysics Seminar

The proximity of the Galactic Center makes it unique for studying the
interactions that take place between the interstellar medium, the
stars and the supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei.  The galactic
supermassive black hole is not very bright but at about 1 pc there is a
large reservoir of material, a molecular gas torus, that could trigger a
more intense phase of activity. Smaller-scale processes can also accrete
material onto the black hole and potentially trigger short peaks in
activity. Here I present the structure and dynamics of the interstellar
medium from few parsecs to sub-parsec scales through spectro-imaging
data gathered by the VLT and Keck. In particular I will highlight the
  unexpected presence of molecular hydrogen in the central parsec (where
the strong UV field is supposed to dissociate it) that could have
migrated from the molecular gas torus or have been formed locally. At
smaller scale, I’ll focus on the unveiling of several dust-enshrouded
objects orbiting close to the central black hole: the "G objects",
likely the dusty product of binary mergers, and X7 a tidally stretching
gas cloud.