IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v3y2012i1d10.1038_ncomms2044.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disruption of a proto-planetary disc by the black hole at the milky way centre

Author

Listed:
  • Ruth A. Murray-Clay

    (Institute for Theory & Computation, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

  • Abraham Loeb

    (Institute for Theory & Computation, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Abstract

Recently, an ionized cloud of gas was discovered plunging towards the supermassive black hole, SgrA*, at the centre of the Milky Way. The cloud is being tidally disrupted along its path to closest approach at ∼3,100 Schwarzschild radii from the black hole. Here we show that the observed properties of this cloud of gas can naturally be produced by a proto-planetary disc surrounding a low-mass star, which was scattered from the observed ring of young stars orbiting SgrA*. As the young star approaches the black hole, its disc experiences both photoevaporation and tidal disruption, producing a cloud. Our model implies that planets form in the Galactic centre, and that tidal debris from proto-planetary discs can flag low-mass stars, which are otherwise too faint to be detected.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruth A. Murray-Clay & Abraham Loeb, 2012. "Disruption of a proto-planetary disc by the black hole at the milky way centre," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 1-5, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2044
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2044
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms2044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2044. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.