An Immersive Visualization of the Galactic Center
The Galactic Centre visualisation is a 360° movie that immerses a viewer into a simulation of the centre of our galaxy.
The footage shows the complex web of interactions between the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) and the surrounding Wolf-Rayet stars. The viewer is placed at the location of Sgr A* and is able to see about 20 of the giant stellar objects. These appear as white, twinkling objects, orbiting around the viewer. They continuously eject stellar winds, which are shown in a black to red to yellow colour scale. These winds collide with each other, and then some of this material spirals towards Sgr A*.
The visualisation shows two scenarios, both of which start 350 years in the past and span 500 years.
The first simulation shows Sgr A* in a calm state, while the second contains a more violent Sgr A* that is expelling its own material.
This negates the build up of clumped material, depicted as yellow blobs, that is so prominent in the first portion.