The stellar cusp around the Milky Way's central black hole

Understand

The existence of stellar cusps in dense clusters around massive black holes is a fundamental, decades-old prediction of theoretical stellar dynamics.

• Yet, observational evidence has been difficult to obtain.
• With a new, improved analysis of high-angular resolution images of the central parsecs of the Galactic Center, we are finally able to provide the first solid evidence for the existence of a stellar cusp around the Milky Way's massive black hole.
• The existence of stellar cusps has a significant impact on predicted event rates of phenomena like tidal disruptions of stars and extreme mass ratio inspirals.