Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, of the Sgr A* Cluster

S. Gezari, A.M. Ghez Also affiliated with UCLA's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics., E.E. Becklin, J. Larkin, I.S. McLean, M. Morris


(1) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, at Los Angeles, CA 90095-1562

Paper: ApJ, accepted

EPrint Server: astro-ph/0205186


Abstract:

We present K-band lambda / DELTA lambda 2600 spectroscopy of five stars (K 14 - 16 mag) within 0.''5 of Sgr A*, the radio source associated with the compact massive object suspected to be a 2.6 x 106 \msun black hole at the center of our Galaxy. High spatial resolution of 0.''09, and good strehl ratios of 0.2 achieved with adaptive optics on the 10-meter Keck telescope make it possible to measure moderate-resolution spectra of these stars individually for the first time. Two stars (S0-17 and S0-18) are identified as late-type stars by the detection of CO bandhead absorption in their spectra. Their absolute K magnitudes and CO bandhead absorption strengths are consistent with early K giants. Three stars (S0-1, S0-2, and S0-16), with r_proj < 0.0075 pc ( 0.''2) from Sgr A*, lack CO bandhead absorption, confirming the results of earlier lower spectral and lower spatial resolution observations that the majority of the stars in the Sgr A* Cluster are early-type stars. The absolute K magnitudes of the early-type stars suggest that they are late O - early B main sequence stars of ages < 20 Myr. The presence of young stars in the Sgr A* Cluster, so close to the central supermassive black hole, poses the intriguing problem of how these stars could have formed, or could have been brought, within its strong tidal field.


Preprints available from the authors at suvi@aida.phys.columbia.edu , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

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