Michi Baubock, University of Illinois
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The GRAVITY instrument at the VLT offers an unprecedented view of the region around the supermassive black hole SgrA* at the center of the Milky Way. These observations have enabled precise measurements of stellar orbits around the black hole, including detection of the gravitational redshift and the relativistic precession of the periastron of the star S2. This high level of astrometric precision strengthens the case for a black hole at the galactic center and allows for tests of General Relativity in the strong-field regime. Moreover, the stability of the measured stellar orbits on a timescale of more than two decades constrains the presence of an intermediate mass black hole. Dr. Baubock will discuss the recent results from the GRAVITY observations of the galactic center and their implications for the environment of SgrA*. Dr. Baubock attended Boston University as an undergraduate before going to Arizona for his Ph.D., working with Dimitrios Psaltis and Feryal Özel on relativistic effects of rotating neutron stars. From there, he went to Germany as a postdoc at the Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik in Reinhard Genzel’s group. Since 2021, he's been at the University of Illinois working with Charles Gammie on black hole accretion and the EHT. Refreshments will be served at 3:00 PM near the Moon Tree on the mall-side of the Kuiper Building new Flandrau.