Spying on the past activity of our supermassive black hole

Séminaire IPAG de Maïca Clavel (IPAG), jeudi 14 décembre 2017 à 11h00, IRAM seminar room

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, is currently one of the least luminous known supermassive black holes. However, X-ray observations carried out over the past decade have provided strong evidence that Sgr A* has experienced periods of higher activity in the past centuries. By tracing the echoes of these past outbursts as they propagate through the Galactic center molecular clouds, we intend to better understand the duty cycle of this supermassive black hole and to identify its past catastrophic events. Yet, reconstructing Sgr A*’s past light curve remains challenging : I will review results and perspectives of this relatively new astro-archeology research field.