NRC's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics near Victoria, British Columbia, is building the next generation adaptive optics instrument for the Gemini North telescope that will enable the telescope to produce even better images. Tim Davidge who is a member of the scientific team. There has been a long-standing interest among astronomers about this particular region of the Galaxy, and the super massive black hole that lurks at the very center, and these data promise to provide much needed information for unlocking the mysteries of the Galactic Core. This discovery should allow astronomers to estimate the velocity of the star. This could be a probe of the physics close to a black hole that is a million times the mass of the Sun.
More information is available in the Gemini press release.
NRC has the mandate to operate and administer astronomical observatories established by the Government of Canada. HIA has fostered many international partnerships and is renowned worldwide for its development of leading-edge instruments and software.