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Observational constraints on the formation and evolution of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster with Keck and Gemini

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2017

Tuan Do
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547 Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1547 email: tdo@astro.ucla.edu
Andrea Ghez
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547 Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1547 email: tdo@astro.ucla.edu
Mark Morris
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547 Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1547 email: tdo@astro.ucla.edu
Jessica Lu
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
Samantha Chappell
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547 Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1547 email: tdo@astro.ucla.edu
Anja Feldmeier-Krause
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory (ESO), Karl-Schwarzschild-Strae 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
Wolfgang Kerzendorf
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory (ESO), Karl-Schwarzschild-Strae 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
Gregory David Martinez
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547 Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1547 email: tdo@astro.ucla.edu
Norm Murray
Affiliation:
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada
Nathan Winsor
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto M5S 3H4, ON, Canada
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Abstract

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We summarize work on the central parsec of the Galactic center based on imaging and spectroscopic observations at the Keck and Gemini telescopes. These observations include stellar positions in two dimension and the velocity in three dimensions. Spectroscopic observations also enables measurements of the physical properties of individual stars, such as the spectral type and in some cases the effective temperature, metallicity, and surface gravity. These observations show a complex stellar population with a young (4-6 Myr) compact star cluster in the central 0.5 pc embedded in in an older and much more massive nuclear star cluster. Surprisingly, the old late-type giants do not show a cusp profile as long been expected from theoretical work. The majority of the stars have higher than solar metallicity, with only about 6% of the stars having [M/Fe] < −0.5, which is consistent with an origin from the MW disk.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2017 

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