Editorial - GCNEWS, Vol. 25, December 2006

GCNEWS

A Newsletter for Galactic Center Research
Currently edited by Sera Markoff, Loránt Sjouwerman, Joseph Lazio, Cornelia Lang, Rainer Schödel, Masaaki Sakano & Feng Yuan
email: gcnews@aoc.nrao.edu



Volume 25, December 2006 - In the News

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In the News - Cornelia Lang & Rainer Schödel

Happy Holidays to all! We are pleased to end 2006 with a final issue of Galactic Center News. In this issue, we are back to having our regular feature article. This issue we present an invited review by Jessica Lu (UCLA) and collaborators featuring their results on high-precision measurements on stellar dynamics within 3"/0.11 pc of Sgr A*. They derive tight constraints on the orbital parameters of 33 young stars. From the orientation of the stellar orbits, they confirm the existence of a clockwise rotating disk of stars. Lu et al. have derived robust lower limits on the eccentricities of the young stars. They derive eccentricities >0.4 for several stars in the clockwise disk, which is challenging to scenarios that propose that the young stars have formed in an accretion disk. The presented results provide important new constraints on models that intend to explain star formation mechanisms in the inner half-parsec, in immediate vicinity to the super-massive black hole and its intense tidal field.

The editorial board is happy to announce the arrival of two new members: welcome to Dr. Feng Yuan from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) in China and Dr. Masaaki Sakano from University of Leicester in the UK (also by way of Japan). Each of them has contributed a report for this issue on current international efforts in Galactic Center research.

Joseph Lazio also reports on a successful session on Galactic Center results at the IAU General Assembly this past August. He is now the chair of a new IAU Working Group on the GC and GCs in other galaxies under the auspices of the Galactic System Division (VII). Thanks to Joe and to Patricia Whitelock of the South African Astronomical Observatory (the President of the IAU Division VII (The Galactic System)) for organizing and running this session and generating interest in GC research!

Finally, we have 27 abstracts submitted for this issue! Thanks to all of these authors for sharing their work. Please continue to submit your recent publication information to GC News (including the link to astroph).

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