Abstract
We present deep 1.6 (H) and 2.2 µm (K) images of the central parsec of the Galaxy at a resolution of 0.15″. The images were obtained using a combination of the simple shift-and-add algorithm and the Lucy-Richardson algorithm for “cleaning”. We give a detailed description of the procedure that led to a mosaic covering an area of about 20″ × 20″.
The results of our recent speckle imaging can be summarized as follows: Most of the flux in earlier seeing limited images comes from about 340 unresolved stellar sources with K magnitudes ≤14. Most of the fainter stars in the central parsec are likely to be M-rather than K-giants. The IRS 16 and 13 complexes are resolved into about 25 and 6 sources, a number of which are probably luminous hot stars. We confirm the presence of a blue near infrared object (K≈13) at the position of the compact radio source Sgr A*. This source either has a ~0.5″ east-west size or it is multiple with its western component closest to Sgr A*. The spatial centroid of the number distribution of compact sources is consistent with the position of Sgr A* but not with a position in the IRS 16 complex. The stellar surface density is very well fitted by an isothermal cluster model with a core radius of 0.15±0.05pc. If the 2µm emitting stars sample the overall mass distribution of the stellar cluster the stellar density is a few times 107 M⊙ pc-3. Buildup of massive stars by collisional merging of lower mass stars and collisional disruption of giant atmospheres are very probable processes in the central 0.2 pc.
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Eckart, A., Genzel, R., Hofmann, R., Sams, B.J., Tacconi-Garman, L.E., Cruzalebes, P. (1994). Diffraction Limited Near-Infrared Imaging of the Galactic Center. In: Genzel, R., Harris, A.I. (eds) The Nuclei of Normal Galaxies. NATO ASI Series, vol 445. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0752-5_38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0752-5_38
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