Material for Public Use

• Galactic Center Slide Show, Powerpoint by Jessica Lu
  This Powerpoint slide show was originally written for the UCLA Planetarium. The show is for viewers of all ages and is a pictoral journey into the center of our galaxy. It also explores the nature of the supermassive black hole. Notes explaining each slide acccompany the presentation. -- Best viewed in Slide Show mode
• COSMUS 3D Interactive Animation of the stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Our collaboration with the Cosmus group is an effort to make current science available to the public for classroom use or for planetarium and museum settings.
• Please see our Pictures/Animations page for additional annimations and movies.

Podcasts

• More evidence of supermassive black hole (in our Galaxy)
  A BBC Podcast with Andrea Ghez discussing the new discovery of S0-102 (2012 October 4).
• The Mysterious Centre of the Milky Way Galaxy
  Leo Meyer joins Justin Trottier at The Star Spot to discuss UCLA research group’s discovery of S0-102 (2012 November 16).
• The Forum
  A BBC podcast interview where Andrea Ghez explains how the UCLA Galactic Center group uses adaptive optics on the Keck telescopes to observe stars zooming around the Milky Way's central black hole (2009 July 26).
• Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of our Galaxy
  Podcast from Australian Broadcasting Corp's Science Show (2006 June 17)

Recommended Reading

• Articles

  • Decade of the Monster by Ron Cowen
    An article about the mysterious source, G2, and its impending approach to the supermassive black hole, Sgr A*.
  • An Absolute Revolution by Andrea Ghez.
    An article on the role that Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics has played in research on the center of our Galaxy. Published in Keck Observatory's e-magazine Cosmic Matters.
  • Homing in on Black Holes by Robert Irion.
    This featured cover story of Smithsonian Magazine describes how Andrea Ghez and the UCLA Galactic Center group have "homed in" on our Galaxy's supermassive black hole.
  • The Milky Way's Dark, Starving Pit by Robert Irion.
    An article in Science magazine on the discovery of fast moving stars in the Galactic center.
  • Huge Black Holes May Hold Keys to Galaxy Formation by Marc Kaufman.
    An article discussing the relationship betwen supermassive black holes, like the one in the Galactic center, and the formation of galaxies. Published in the Washington Post.
  • Milky Way's Central Monster Measured by Robert Naeye.
    An article published in Sky and Telescope about how the UCLA Galactic Center Group has measured the mass of the Milky Way's central black hole.

• Books

  • You Can Be a Woman Astronomer by Andrea Mia Ghez and Judith Love Cohen
  • The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy by Fulvio Melia
  • Gravity's Fatal Attraction: Black Holes in the Universe by Mitchell Begelman and Martin Rees
  • Astrometry for Astrophysics edited by William F van Altena