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D.A. Roberts (Northwestern U. & Adler Planetarium), F. Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern U.)
Motivated by the presence of a massive black hole coincident with Sgr A* at the center of our Galaxy, a number of measurements have successfully detected proper motion of ionized gas and stars at the Galactic Center. Here we use a similar technique to compare the distribution of radial velocities in the inner parcsec of the center of the Galaxy in two epochs separated by six years. VLA observations were carried out in the H92alpha radio recombination line from Sgr A West; each observation had identical velocity coverage as well as velocity and spatial resolutions. Accurate velocity fields were derived from Gaussian fitting the data from the two epochs; radial acceleration was determined by comparing the fitted velocity fields. We report the detection of a radial velocity change of -27.5 +/- 6.7 km s-1 at one location within the inner light year of Sgr A*. The implication of this result will be discussed.