Abstracts, Galactic Center Workshop '98
GCNEWS
A Newsletter for Galactic Center Research
This Volume was edited by Angela Cotera & Heino Falcke
email: gcnews@aoc.nrao.edu

ABSTRACT

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OH/IR stars as signposts for ancient starburst activity in the Galactic center
Sjouwerman, L.O.1; Habing, H.J.; Lindqvist, M.; van Langevelde, H.J.; Winnberg, A.
1 JIVE
ABSTRACT:
A recent sensitive survey has doubled the number of OH/IR stars known
in the Galactic center (GC). The distribution of expansion velocities
of the circumstellar shells of these stars shows an unexpectedly
narrow peak at the high end tail.
From this, we conclude that this sample of stars has a higher
metallicity than any other sample known, and that a large fraction of
stars has formed in an epoch of enhanced star formation at least one
Giga-year ago. Thus one can distinguish three different groups of
stars in the direction of the GC: an old bulge-like population, a
group of relatively young stars formed from continously infalling gas,
and a shrinking population of low-mass stars that formed in an
isolated era - probably a starburst.
This is a striking conclusion that can only be drawn from OH/IR stars,
because they form the only tracable population older than a few
hundred million years in the GC.
LINKS: Program, Author, sjouwerm@jive.nfra.nl
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