Airborne far-infrared observations of the galactic center region. (original) (raw)

NASA/ADS

;

Abstract

Maps of a region 10 arcmin in diameter around the galactic center made simultaneously in three wavelength bands at 30, 50, and 100 microns with about 1 arcmin resolution are presented, and the distribution of far-IR luminosity and color temperature across this region is derived. The position of highest far-IR surface brightness coincides with the peak of the late-type stellar distribution and with the H II region Sgr A West. The high spatial and temperature resolution of the data is used to identify features of the far-IR maps with known sources of near-IR, radio continuum, and molecular emission. The emission mechanism and energy sources for the far-IR radiation are analyzed qualitatively, and it is concluded that all of the observed far-IR radiation from the galactic-center region can be attributed to thermal emission from dust heated both by the late-type stars and by the ultraviolet sources which ionize the H II regions. A self-consistent model for the far-IR emission from the galactic-center region is presented. It is found that the visual extinction across the central 10 pc of the Galaxy is only about 3 mag and that the dust density is fairly uniform in this region. An upper limit of 10 million suns is set on the luminosity of any still unidentified source of 0.1- to 1-micron radiation at the galactic center.

Publication:

The Astrophysical Journal

Pub Date:

August 1977

DOI:

10.1086/155470

Bibcode:

1977ApJ...216..277G

Keywords: