Kinematics of Late-Type Stars in the Central 10 Parsecs of the Galaxy

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Drs. Hall, Sellgren, and Becklin will make observations at near- infrared wavelengths in order to characterize the motions and the brightness of the population of late type stars located within a 5 parsec radius of the Galactic Center. This will test the hypothesis of the existence of a massive condensed object at the Galactic Center, and it will provide unique kinematic data which can be applied to our understanding of the nuclei of other galaxies. The center of our Galaxy provides a unique opportunity to study a galactic nucleus at spatial scales as small as a few hundredths of a parsec and to obtain observations of individual stars within the region. Detailed studies of the nucleus of our own Galaxy may prove vitally important in the interpretation of other, more energetic galactic nuclei. Because of heavy obscuration by dust, the center of the Galaxy is not observable at visible wavelengths. It can be studied, however, at infrared and longer wavelengths, and advances in spectroscopic instrumentation and array detectors now make possible detailed studies in the near infrared.