Event Horizon Telescope Evidence for Alignment of the Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way with the Inner Stellar Disk

Observations of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way with theEvent Horizon Telescope at 1.3 mm have revealed a size of the emittingregion that is smaller than the size of the black-hole shadow. This canbe reconciled with the spectral properties of the source, if theaccretion flow is seen at a relatively high inclination(50°-60°). Such an inclination makes the angular momentum of theflow, and perhaps of the black hole, nearly aligned with the angularmomenta of the orbits of stars that lie within ~= 3'' from the blackhole. We discuss the implications of such an alignment for theproperties of the black hole and of its accretion flow. We argue thatfuture Event Horizon Telescope observations will not only refine theinclination of Sgr A* but also measure precisely its orientation on theplane of the sky.