1 Introduction

Sgr A*, the stationary, compact, nonthermal radio source at the Galactic Centre (GC), appears to be coincident with a $2.6\pm0.2\times10^6~M_{\odot}$ point-like object (Eckart & Genzel 1996, 1997; Ghez et al. 1998; Backer & Sramek 1999; Genzel et al. 2000; Ghez et al. 2000). It is probable that Sgr A* is associated with the accretion of matter onto a supermassive blackhole (for a recent review of the evidence, see Genzel & Eckart 1999). Models for the accretion process itself vary widely, including simplistic spherical accretion (Coker & Melia 2000; Coker & Markoff 2001), an advective flow (Narayan et al. 1995), a convective flow (Stone et al. 1999), a compact jet (Falcke & Markoff 2000), and a truncated power-law electron distribution (Beckert & Duschl 1997). The true picture is probably some combination of these various models.

Deep in the potential well of Sgr A* and pervading the central parsec of the Milky Way, there exists a cluster of a few dozen early-type stars (Sellgren et al. 1990; Genzel et al. 1996), which is dominated by the IRS 16 assemblage of probable Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars (Najarro et al. 1997). Numerous observations and models (Hall et al. 1982; Allen et al. 1990; Geballe et al. 1991; Yusef-Zadeh & Melia 1992; Najarro et al. 1997; Hanson et al. 1998; Paumard et al. 2001) provide evidence that this cluster is producing a composite hypersonic wind of  yr^-1.

Some fraction of $\dot M_{\rm w}$ will be trapped by the supermassive blackhole located near the middle of the stellar cluster. However, all of the above models for Sgr A* require a mass accretion rate that is orders of magnitude less than $\dot M_{\rm w}$. If any of these models are correct, then for the lifetime of the early-type cluster's winds and in the absence of any observed large-scale outflow from Sgr A*, some part of the cluster's winds has been accumulating in the central parsec without being accreted by the blackhole. It is the purpose of this letter to investigate this gas in the light of recent X-ray observations of the GC.