Galactic Center Research

Imaging

Introduction

Imaging

To the right, a wide field K-band image of the Galactic Center is shown. The image covers approximately an area of 5.5 x 5.5 arcminutes (about 13 x 13 parsecs). The brightness increases continuously to the center, where the center of the central stellar cluster with the dominant source IRS 7 and the bright IRS 16 cluster is located. This image has been taken on Calar Alto with the Omega-Cass camera with a pixel scale of 0.3 arcseconds.

The image below shows the central parsec of the galaxy. On the left, a Simple Shift-and-Add mosaic is shown. It was recorded in April 1994 using the SHARP I camera mounted on the NTT on La Silla. On the right, a contour plot of the image with identifications of the brightest stars is given. The compact radio source Sgr A*, which we have shown to be a massive black hole, is just above the "SW" east of the IRS 16 cluster.

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at ott@mpe.mpg.de