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The Luminosity of the Central Parsec of the Galaxy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2016

M. W. Werner  and
J. A. Davidson
M. W. Werner
Affiliation:
Space Sciences Division NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035
J. A. Davidson
Affiliation:
Space Sciences Division NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035

Abstract

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The luminosity of the central 5 pc of the Galaxy -encompassing the inner regions of the rotating ring of dust and gas which surrounds the galactic center - emerges primarily at infrared wavelengths in the form of thermal emission from heated dust. The nature and location of the sources which heat the dust can be inferred from the spatial and temperature distribution of the thermal infrared emission (λ>20um), from studies of the ionized gas in this region, and from direct imaging in the near infrared. These observations show that the principal heating sources within this 5-pc region are concentrated within the central parsec of the Galaxy and indicate that the luminosity of these sources is within a factor of two of 107 LO. The near-infrared observations of the compact sources at the galactic center do not reveal a single dominant source but suggest instead that the several components of the IRS-16 complex, taken together, may contribute the bulk of the luminosity; however, the data also permit a single object to dominate the energetics of this region. We draw attention to the striking morphological similarities between the galactic center and the innermost regions of the 30 Doradus nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud and speculate that the luminosity sources in the galactic center may resemble the early-type supergiants in 30 Doradus.

Type
Sagittarius A West and the Circumnuclear Disk
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 136: The Galactic Center , 1989 , pp. 423 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1989 

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