Advances from Recent Multi-wavelength Campaigns on Sgr A*

Abstract

AbstractSagittarius A* is the closest example of a supermassive black hole and our proximity allows us to detect emission from its accretion flow in the radio, submillimeter, near IR, and X-ray regimes. Ambitious monitoring campaigns have yielded rich multi-wavelength, time-resolved data that have the power to probe the physical processes underlying Sgr A*’s quiescent and flare emission. Here, I review the status of Sgr A* X-ray monitoring campaigns from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (also XMM Newton, and Swift), and efforts to coordinate these with observations across the electromagnetic spectrum. I also discuss how these observations constrain models for Sgr A*’s variability, which range from tidal disruption of asteroids to gravitational lensing to collimated outflows to magnetic reconnection.