TABLE OF CONTENTS: PREFACE vii
1. THE GALACTIC CENTER 1
1.1 The Hidden Realm 3
1.2 Removing the Dusty Veils 10
1.3 The Principal Constituents 18
1.4 Exploration from Space 27
2. CONDENSATION OF DARK MATTER 35
2.1 A Swarm of Stars 37
2.2 The Motion of Stars and Gas 39
2.3 The Missing Mass 44
2.4 A Super-Heavy Central Object 47
3. THE THEORY OF GRAVITY 51
3.1 What Is Mass? 51
3.2 Development of a Gravity Theory 61
3.3 Everything Is Relative 69
3.4 The Principle of Equivalence 77
3.5 The Key Predictions of General Relativity 83
3.6 Black Holes and Their Event Horizons 94
4. A STAR IN SAGITTARIUS 105
4.1 Hawking Radiation 106
4.2 Energy Extraction according to Penrose 111
4.3 Cosmic Fireworks 114
4.4 Shape and Size of Sagittarius A* 117
4.5 The Glow of Matter Falling In 122
5. THE EVENT HORIZON 129
5.1 The Environment near the Precipice 131
5.2 How the Dark Shadow Forms 134
5.3 An Image of the Black Hole within This Decade 143
5.4 An X-Ray Image of the Dark Shadow from Space 146
5.5 Impact on the General Theory of Relativity 149
6. QUASARS AND GALACTIC NUCLEI 153
6.1 The Host Galaxies of Quasars 157
6.2 The Active Nuclei of Other Galaxies 161
6.3 Superluminal Motion 168
6.4 The Supermassive Black Hole Menagerie 174
6.5 Future Horizons 177
REFERENCES 179
INDEX 183
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