535 research outputs found
Dusty Sources at the Galactic Center: The N- and Q-band view with VISIR
We present mid-infrared N- and Q-band photometry of the Galactic Center from
images obtained with the mid-infrared camera VISIR at the ESO VLT in May 2004.
The high resolution and sensitivity possible with VISIR enables us to
investigate a total of over 60 point-like sources, an unprecedented number for
the Galactic Center at these wavelengths. Combining these data with previous
results at shorter wavelengths (Viehmann et al. 2005) enables us to construct
SEDs covering the H- to Q-band regions of the spectrum, i.e. 1.6 to 19.5
m. We find that the SEDs of certain types of Galactic Center sources show
characteristic features. We can clearly distinguish between luminous Northern
Arm bow-shock sources, lower luminosity bow-shock sources, hot stars, and cool
stars. This characterization may help clarify the status of presently
unclassified sources.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
Properties of bow-shock sources at the Galactic center
There are an enigmatic population of massive stars around the Galactic Center
(GC) that were formed some Ma ago. A fraction of these stars has been found to
orbit the supermassive black hole, SgrA*, in a projected clockwise disk, which
suggests that they were formed in a formerly existing dense disk around SgrA*.
We focus on the extended, near-infrared (NIR) sources IRS1W, IRS5, IRS10W, and
IRS21 that have been suggested to be young, massive stars that form bow-shocks
through their interaction with the ISM. Their nature has impeded accurate
determination of their orbital parameters. We aim at establishing their nature
and kinematics to test whether they form part of the clockwise disk. We
performed NIR multi-wavelength imaging using adaptive optics (AO) and sparse
aperture masking (SAM). We introduce a new method for self-calibration of the
SAM PSF in dense stellar fields. The emission mechanism, morphology and
kinematics of the targets were examined via 3D bow-shock models. We confirm
previous findings that IRS21, IRS1W, and IRS5 are bow-shocks created by the
interaction between mass-losing stars and the interstellar gas. The nature of
IRS10W remains unclear. Our modeling shows that the bow-shock-emission is
caused by thermal emission while the scattering of stellar light does not play
any significant role. IRS 1W appears to be a bow-shock produced by an
anisotropic stellar wind or by locally inhomogeneous ISM density. Our best-fit
models provide an estimate of the local proper motion of the ISM in the NA in
agreement with the published models. Assuming that all of the sources are tied
to SgrA*, their orbital planes were obtained via a Monte-Carlo simulation. Our
orbital analysis suggests that they are not part of any of the clockwise disk.
We thus add more evidence to recent findings that a large part of the massive
stars show apparently random orbital orientations.Comment: accepted for publication by A&A, 17 pages, 11 figures, 1 appendi
Direct Detection of the Tertiary Component in the Massive Multiple HD 150 136 with VLTI
Massive stars are of fundamental importance for almost all aspects of
astrophysics, but there still exist large gaps in our understanding of their
properties and formation because they are rare and therefore distant. It has
been found that most O-stars are multiples. HD 150 136 is the nearest system to
Earth with >100 M_sol, and provides a unique opportunity to study an extremely
massive system. Recently, evidence for the existence of a third component in HD
150 136, in addition to the tight spectroscopic binary that forms the main
component, was found in spectroscopic observations. Our aim was to image and
obtain astrometric and photometric measurements of this component using long
baseline optical interferometry to further constrain the nature of this
component. We observed HD150136 with the near-infrared instrument AMBER
attached to the ESO VLT Interferometer. The recovered closure phases are robust
to systematic errors and provide unique information on the source asymmetry.
Therefore, they are of crucial relevance for both image reconstruction and
model fitting of the source structure. The third component in HD 150 136 is
clearly detected in the high-quality data from AMBER. It is located at a
projected angular distance of 7.3 mas, or about 13 AU at the line-of-sight
distance of HD 150 136, at a position angle of 209 degrees East of North, and
has a flux ratio of 0.25 with respect to the inner binary. We resolved the
third component of HD 150 136 in J, H and K filters. The luminosity and color
of the tertiary agrees with the predictions and shows that it is also an O
main-sequence star. The small measured angular separation indicates that the
tertiary may be approaching the periastron of its orbit. These results, only
achievable with long baseline near infrared interferometry, constitute the
first step towards the understanding of the massive star formation mechanisms
VLT-SINFONI observations of Mrk 609 - A showcase for X-ray active galaxies chosen from a sample of AGN suitable for adaptive optics observations with natural guide stars
We will present first results of ESO-VLT AO-assisted integral-field
spectroscopy of a sample of X-ray bright AGN with redshifts of 0.04 < z < 1. We
constructed this sample by cross-correlating the SDSS and ROSAT surveys and
utilizing typical AO constraints. This sample allows for a detailed study of
the NIR properties of the nuclear and host environments with high spectral
resolution on the 100 pc scale. These objects can then be compared directly to
the local (z<0.01) galaxy populations (observed without AO) at the same linear
scale. As a current example, we will present observations of the z=0.034
Seyfert 1.8 galaxy Mrk 609 with the new AO-assisted integral-field spectrometer
SINFONI at the VLT. The successful observations show, that in the future -
while having observed more objects - we will be able to determine the presence,
frequency and importance of nuclear bars and/or circum-nuclear star forming
rings in these objects and address the question of how these X-ray luminous AGN
and their hosts are linked to optically/UV-bright QSOs, low-z QSOs/radio
galaxies, or ULIRGs.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, submitted to "Adaptive Optics-Assisted
Integral-Field Spectroscopy", Rutten R.G.M., Benn C.R., Mendez J., eds., May
2005, La Palma (Spain), New Astr. Re
First VLTI infrared spectro-interferometry on GCIRS 7 - Characterizing the prime reference source for Galactic center observations at highest angular resolution
Investigating the environment of the massive black hole SgrA* at the center
of the Galaxy requires the highest angular resolution available to avoid source
confusion and to study the physical properties of the individual objects.
GCIRS7 has been used as wavefront and astrometric reference. Our studies
investigate, for the first time, its properties at 2&10um using VLTI/AMBER and
MIDI. We aim at analyzing the suitability of IRS7 as an IF-phase-reference for
the upcoming generation of dual-field facilities at optical interferometers. We
observed with (R~30) and 50m (proj.) baseline, resulting in 9 and 45mas
resolution for NIR and MIR, resp. The first K-band fringe detection of a GC
star suggests that IRS7 could be marginally resolved at 2um, which would imply
that the photosphere of the supergiant is enshrouded by a molecular and dusty
envelope. At 10um, IRS7 is strongly resolved with a visibility of approximately
0.2. The MIR is dominated by moderately warm (200 K), extended dust, mostly
distributed outside of a radius of about 120 AU (15 mas) around the star. A
deep 9.8-silicate absorption in excess of the usual extinction law with respect
to the NIR extinction has been found. This confirms recent findings of a
relatively enhanced, interstellar 9.8-silicate absorption with respect to the
NIR extinction towards another star in the central arcsec, suggesting an
unusual dust composition in that region. Our VLTI observations show that
interferometric NIR phase-referencing experiments with mas resolution using
IRS7 as phase-reference appear to be feasible, but more such studies are
required to definitely characterize the close environment around this star. We
demonstrate that interferometry is required to resolve the innermost
environment of stars at the Galactic center.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Science with the Keck Interferometer ASTRA Program
The ASTrometric and phase-Referenced Astronomy (ASTRA) project will provide
phase referencing and astrometric observations at the Keck Interferometer,
leading to enhanced sensitivity and the ability to monitor orbits at an
accuracy level of 30-100 microarcseconds. Here we discuss recent scientific
results from ASTRA, and describe new scientific programs that will begin in
2010-2011. We begin with results from the "self phase referencing" (SPR) mode
of ASTRA, which uses continuum light to correct atmospheric phase variations
and produce a phase-stabilized channel for spectroscopy. We have observed a
number of protoplanetary disks using SPR and a grism providing a spectral
dispersion of ~2000. In our data we spatially resolve emission from dust as
well as gas. Hydrogen line emission is spectrally resolved, allowing
differential phase measurements across the emission line that constrain the
relative centroids of different velocity components at the 10 microarcsecond
level. In the upcoming year, we will begin dual-field phase referencing (DFPR)
measurements of the Galactic Center and a number of exoplanet systems. These
observations will, in part, serve as precursors to astrometric monitoring of
stellar orbits in the Galactic Center and stellar wobbles of exoplanet host
stars. We describe the design of several scientific investigations capitalizing
on the upcoming phase-referencing and astrometric capabilities of ASTRA.Comment: Published in the proceedings of the SPIE 2010 conference on "Optical
and Infrared Interferometry II
VLTI observations of IRS~3: The brightest compact MIR source at the Galactic Centre
The dust enshrouded star IRS~3 in the central light year of our galaxy was
partially resolved in a recent VLTI experiment. The presented observation is
the first step in investigating both IRS~3 in particular and the stellar
population of the Galactic Centre in general with the VLTI at highest angular
resolution. We will outline which scientific issues can be addressed by a
complete MIDI dataset on IRS~3 in the mid infrared.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published in: The ESO Messenge
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