Ever wondered what is lie to be a spy in real ife? Well, “James Bond. your job is to go someplace, complete your mission, fade into the woodwork and disappear as if you had never been there.”. Those were the first words Don heard from his Spy School instructor.

During his 30 year career as an engineer for the Navy Don was sent on about a dozen classified field missions. His missions ranged from a week to months maintaining a cover story, remaining invisible. No gun chases, poison pens or gimmicked cars and certainly no greeting hm and offering him his favorite cocktail. No, it ain’t James Bond!

Don Grayson has a BS in Physics ‘54 and obtained an MS in engineering at Purdue in 1972. His 30 year career as a civilian engineer for U.S. Navy in engineering management at Naval Avionics Center Indianapolis. His assignments include U.S. NATO rep to Sweden, classified courier, project manager and technical analysis to various military radar & weapon guidance systems. Don is a sailboat hobbyist

Lockheed Martin has developed many innovative projects for Space, most recently a Lightning Mapper which is used for forecasting of tornadoes and warnings of lightning-caused fires. We have 2 Guinness World records for detecting the longest lightning distance/duration. Other historic projects include Gravity Probe-B to confirm Einstein’s gravitational theories, Solar observing imagers, high-energy particle spectrometers, and other innovative projects in conjunction with world-wide universities.

This presentation delves into this extreme environment, exploring the large-scale gas clouds and the closer-in structures that fuel the black hole. It examines how molecular hydrogen manages to survive intense ultraviolet radiation and introduces a newly identified class of enigmatic objects orbiting perilously close to Sagittarius A*.

Observed over two decades with the Keck Observatory, these objects may represent the remnants of stellar collisions or merged binaries, offering valuable insights into how matter behaves under immense gravitational forces. Mapping this region helps to illuminate the intricate interplay of stars, gas, and gravity at the core of the galaxy.

Anna Ciurlo‘s research focuses on stars and gas around the supermassive black hole in the center of our Galaxy. Her work leverages high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy from large ground and space-based observatories like Keck and the JWST. She earned her PhD in astrophysics from the Sorbonne Paris Cité and pursued postdoctoral research at UCLA. She was an inaugural year Keck Visiting Scholar at Keck Observatory. Anna continues at UCLA in the Galactic Center Group as an assistant researcher and adjunct assistant professor