The infrared L'-band view of the Galactic Center with NAOS-CONICA at VLT

Yann Clénet (1, 2) , Daniel Rouan (1, 2) , Éric Gendron (1, 2) , François Lacombe (1, 2) , Anne-Marie Lagrange (3) , David Mouillet (3) , Yves Magnard (3) , Gérard Rousset (4) , Thierry Fusco (5) , Joseph Montri (5) , Reinhard Genzel (6) , Rainer Schödel (6) , Thomas Ott (6) , Andreas Eckart (7) , Olivier Marco (8) , Lowell E. Tacconi-Garman (9)

1 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
2 Pôle Astronomie du LESIA
3 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
4 ONERA
5 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Châtillon]
6 MPE - Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestriche Physik
7 Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln
8 European Southern Observatory
9 ESO - European Southern Observatory

We report on Galactic Center L'-band observations made during NAOS/CONICA Science Verification. Colors of the inner 2\arcsec stars reveal an infrared excess of S2, the closest star to the black hole, that could sign the first thermal infrared detection of Sgr A*. A multi-wavelength maximum likelihood analysis has allowed us to eliminate all but two of the candidates for gravitational lensing proposed by \citet{alexander01}. Our observations of the thin and intersecting structures of the Northern Arm could trace several shocks heating the neighbooring dust rather than a stream of matter in orbit around the central mass as previously thought.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Yann Clénet, Daniel Rouan, Éric Gendron, François Lacombe, Anne-Marie Lagrange, et al.. The infrared L'-band view of the Galactic Center with NAOS-CONICA at VLT. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2004, 417, pp.L15-L19. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361:20040031⟩. ⟨hal-03786470⟩