Galactic core
Position on the route: 44/45 · level needed 3000 · journey (Mk0 engine) 500.9 h
By the numbers
| Distance | 26,000 light-years |
|---|---|
| Centre | Sagittarius A*, a black hole |
| Mass | 4.3 million Suns |
| Event horizon | 24 million km |
| Image | Event Horizon Telescope, 2022 |
| Stellar density | a million times the Sun’s neighbourhood |
The story
The heart of the Milky Way, behind dust clouds toward Sagittarius. At the centre sits a black hole of 4.3 million solar masses; its mass was measured by tracking the orbits of nearby stars (such as S2) for decades, work that earned the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 2022 the Event Horizon Telescope imaged its shadow.
Stars are so dense there that the night sky would shine like a million Suns. Intense radiation, supernovae and the black hole’s tides make a habitable planet unlikely; only a distant orbital station is conceivable.
A place light takes 26,000 years to reach; in the game the last great threshold before Andromeda. Shield Mk3 and the orbital-habitat research are needed.
Missions
- Chandra, Keck, VLT/GRAVITY, Event Horizon Telescope: observations
Colony note
Not a home but an observatory station: science on the edge of the black hole.
☠ The galactic core: radiation and a black hole. Only as an orbital habitat, at a distance.
What probes bring back
- Sgr A*: 4.3 million solar masses; the star S2 orbits in 16 years.
- Stellar density a million times the Sun’s neighbourhood.