| Massive stars and the creation of our galactic center (2003) | |||||||||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||||||||
| A Massive Star Odyssey from Main Sequence Supernova Proceedings IAU Symposium IAU van der Hucht Herrero Esteban eds Massive Stars and The Creation our Galactic Center Donald Figer STScI San Martin Drive Baltimore JHU and Charles Street Baltimore Abstract Our Galactic Center hosts over the known massive stars the Galaxy The majority these stars are located three particularly massive clusters that formed within the past Myr While these clusters are extraordinary their formation repesents about half the total inferred star formation rate the Galactic Center There mounting evidence that the clusters are just present day examples the hundreds such similar clusters that must have been created the past and whose stars now comprise the bulk all stars seen the region discuss the massive stellar content the Galactic Center and present new analysis that suggests that effects continuous star formation the Galactic Center can seen the observed luminosity functions newly obtained HST NICMOS and Gemini data arXiv astro Jul Introduction Over the known massive stars Minit in the Galaxy reside three clusters young stars located within the Galactic Center These clusters are the most massive young clusters the Galaxy and contain approximately Wolf Rayet stars least Luminous Blue Variables LBV approximately half dozen red supergiants and approximately stars Together they emit enough ionizing radiation account for roughly half the thermal radio emission the central few degrees the Galaxy suggestin. Also archived in: arXiv:astro-ph/0207300 v1 14 Jul 2002. Our Galactic Center hosts over 10% of the known massive stars in the Galaxy. The majority of these stars are located in three particularly massive clusters that formed within the past 5 Myr. While these clusters are extraordinary, their formation repesents about half of the total inferred star formation rate in the Galactic Center. There is mounting evidence that the clusters are just present-day examples of the hundreds of such similar clusters that must have been created in the past, and whose stars now comprise the bulk of all stars seen in the region. I discuss the massive stellar content in the Galactic Center and present a new analysis that suggests that effects of continuous star formation in the Galactic Center can be seen in the observed luminosity functions newly-obtained HST/NICMOS and Gemini AO data. (Refer to PDF file for exact formulas).. I acknowledge very useful discussions with Paco Najarro, Bob Blum, Laurant Sjouwerman, Mike Rich, Mark Morris, Sungsoo Kim, and Jay Frogel. | |||||||||||||||
Publication details | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||