AAS 199th meeting, Washington, DC, January 2002
Session 85. The Galactic Center
Display, Wednesday, January 9, 2002, 9:20am-6:30pm, Monroe/Lincoln

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[85.05] MIR Imaging of the Galactic Center: Dust Temperature and Opacity in the Central Parsec

A. Cotera (Steward Observatory), A. Tanner, M. Morris, A. Ghez, E. Becklin (U.C.L.A), M. Werner (Caltech/JPL)

We have obtained high resolution images of the central ~1.3 parsecs of the Galactic Center in the Mid-Infrared (MIR), using the MIRLIN camera on Keck II. The near-diffraction-limited narrow-band images, taken at 8.8\mum, 12.5\mum, 20.8\mum and 24.5\mum, give unprecedented detail of the MIR emission in the region. Using color-temperature maps we will investigate the strong gradient in dust temperature with distance from the IRS 16 stellar cluster and variations in temperatures from the embedded sources. In addition we present the variations in the dust density by constructing opacity maps. Finally, we will present results on the source and distribution of the MIR emission in the region from radiative transfer models.


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