Astronomers Creep Up to the Edge of the Milky Way’s Black Hole

Re:Astronomers Creep Up to the Edge of the Milky Way’s Black... by stephengillie on Tuesday October 30, 2018 @09:59PM (#18342790)

> Astronomers call it Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A-star”).

Why do astronomers call the black hole "A Star" when they know better than anyone else that it's not a star, but a black hole?

Why don't we call it "Sagittarius A-black hole"?

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Re:Astronomers Creep Up to the Edge of the Milky Way’s Black... by scentoni on Tuesday October 30, 2018 @10:32PM (#18342922)

The asterisk has nothing to do with indicating it is a star.

> The name Sgr A* was coined by Brown in a 1982 paper because the radio source was "exciting", and excited states of atoms are denoted with asterisks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*

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[dead]

Re:Astronomers Creep Up to the Edge of the Milky Way’s Black... by phs318u on Wednesday October 31, 2018 @02:35AM (#18343735)

Asterisk is derived from asteriskos, the Greek diminutive for star (aster) - hence "little star". In addition, a black hole is one of several possible lifecycle end-points of a star, so pronouncing A* as A-star is pretty accurate.

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Re:Astronomers Creep Up to the Edge of the Milky Way’s Black... by pc86 on Wednesday October 31, 2018 @09:12AM (#18345340)

You just quoted a source saying it wasn't, stop trolling.

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