Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21940904b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #409.04
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Milky Way nuclear cluster, in which Sgr A* is embedded, consists of a mixture of evolved and young stellar populations. We present an HST/NICMOS study of the distribution of stellar light within the inner 10" of the Galactic Center. We measure the radial surface brightness distribution surrounding Sgr A* in three near-infrared imaging bands and compare the resulting distribution with previous studies involving a range of different techniques. Our analysis shows that the surface brightness profile within 5" or 0.2 pc of Sgr A* can be fitted with broken power laws, with slopes of -0.13 (r < 0.7") and -0.34 (r > 0.7"). This is consistent with previous measurements, in that the profile becomes shallower at small radii. Modeling of the surface brightness profile gives a stellar density that increases roughly as 1/r within the inner 1" of Sgr A*. This slope is not consistent with that expected for an old, dynamically-relaxed cluster surrounding a black hole. It is also in contrast to some previous studies that had shown evidence for a decline in the number density of stars very near Sgr A*.
Bushouse Howard A.
Wardle Mark
Yusef-Zadeh Farah
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