Spectroscopic Analysis of the IR-Visible Galactic Core

[psholtz]

I understand that the massive object at the center of the galaxy is visible in both radio waves and X-rays, although not in visible light.

I also understand that an image has recently been taken of this object in the infrared wavelengths.

Have there been any attempts to do spectroscopy on this object in the IR band?

 

[qraal]

There's lots of different things in the Galactic centre so be a bit more specific.

 

[granpa]

http://Earth'sky.org/space/most-detailed-view-yet-of-milky-way-center

http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/pages/home/som/2009/12/

 

[psholtz]

There's lots of different things in the Galactic centre so be a bit more specific.

I have in mind Sgr A*, the compact, extremely massive object at the center of the galaxy emitting X-rays and radio waves and which some astronomers believe might be a "black hole"..

 

[psholtz]

http://Earth'sky.org/space/most-detailed-view-yet-of-milky-way-center

http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/pages/home/som/2009/12/

Thanks, the second article in particular is informative..

Still, I don't think anyone has done spectroscopy on the IR signals coming from this source, have they?

 

[twofish-quant]

ADS (http://adswww.harvard.edu/) is your friend

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006ApJ...640L.163G
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006ApJ...642L.145K

Super-short summary is that they've looked for lines during infrared flares and haven't found any. It looks from those papers that it's only when Sgr A* flares up do they have enough brightness to do any spectroscopy.