858 research outputs found
Star formation in the central 0.5 pc of the Milky Way
The supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Center is surrounded by
a parsec-scale star cluster, which contains a number of early type stars. The
presence of such stars has been called a "paradox of youth" as star formation
in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole seemed difficult, as
well as the transport of stars from far out in a massive-star lifetime. I will
recall 30 years of technological developments which led to the current
understanding of the nuclear cluster stellar population. The number of early
type stars known at present is sufficient to access the 3D structure of this
population and its dynamics, which in turn allows discriminating between the
various possible origins proposed along the years.Comment: 8 pages, invited review for the conference "The Universe under the
Microscope" (AHAR 2008), to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference
Series by Institute of Physics Publishin
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