Dynamics and properties of gas at the Center of the Galaxy

In the central parsec of the Milky Way Galaxy the environment of the super-massive black hole (SMBH) presents a complicated composition that includes a very young star cluster mixed with qby tidally stretched clouds of ionized gas (the Minispiral). The Galactic Center's inner few tens of arcseconds have been observed at high resolution with Keck for 20 years, with the primary goal of monitoring stars orbiting the SMBH. This unique baseline of data is a rich source of information that allows the examination of the gas features and their dynamics.  In particular the Keck OSIRIS integral field spectrograph observations allow us to examine of the dynamical properties of the gas.  We present a study of the morphology and dynamics of sub-parsec scale gas features in the central region in order to disentangle the specific components and processes, and to place the gas structures in a 3D context. We used a tool for visualizing spectro-imaging datacubes in all 3 dimensions, developed at Keck (osrsvol), together with a global line fitting procedure (regularized 3D fitting). Many filaments and clumps of unknown origin can be underlined in a wide range of shapes, redshift and velocities.  The further study of their dynamics can help understand local processes going on in this extreme region, putting into evidence both large and small scale motions as signatures of global and local processes.

Date: 
11/01/2018 - 12:30
Speaker: 
Dr. Anna Ciurlo
Filiation: 
UCLA, USA


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