SOFIA/FORCAST Galactic Center Legacy Survey: Overview
arXiv:2001.05487 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab7c5d
Abstract
The Galactic Center contains some of the most extreme conditions for star formation in our Galaxy as well as many other phenomena that are unique to this region. Given our relative proximity to the Galactic Center, we are able to study details of physical processes to a level that is simply not yet possible for more distant galaxies, yielding an otherwise inaccessible view of the nuclear region of a galaxy. We recently carried out a targeted imaging survey of mid-infrared bright portions of the Galactic Center at 25 and 37 m using the FORCAST instrument on SOFIA. This survey was one of the inaugural Legacy Programs from SOFIA cycle 7, observing a total area of 403 arcmin (2180 pc), including the Sgr A, B, and C complexes. Here we present an overview of the survey strategy, observations, and data reduction as an accompaniment to the initial public release of the survey data. We discuss interesting regions and features within the data including extended features near the circumnuclear disk, structures in the Arched Filaments and Sickle H II regions, and signs of embedded star formation in Sgr B2 and Sgr C. We also feature a handful of less well studied mid-infrared sources located between Sgr A and Sgr C that could be sites of relatively isolated star formation activity. Last, we discuss plans for subsequent publications and future data releases from the survey.
arXiv comment21 pages, 11 figures, Accepted to ApJ
References in corpus (53)
- The VizieR database of Astronomical Catalogues
- The Calibration of Mid-Infrared Star Formation Rate Indicators
- Interpreting Spectral Energy Distributions from Young Stellar Objects. I. A grid of 200,000 YSO model SEDs
- Hi-GAL: the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey
- HST/NICMOS Observations of Massive Stellar Clusters Near the Galactic Center
- Variations in the Galactic star formation rate and density thresholds for star formation
- Early Science with SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
- Star Formation Rates in Molecular Clouds and the Nature of the Extragalactic Scaling Relations
- Line derived infrared extinction towards the Galactic Center
- Star Formation in the Central 400 pc of the Milky Way: Evidence for a Population of Massive YSOs
- Star formation rates and efficiencies in the Galactic Centre
- Comparing molecular gas across cosmic time-scales: the Milky Way as both a typical spiral galaxy and a high-redshift galaxy analogue
- The XMM-Newton view of the central degrees of the Milky Way
- Mass Function of the Arches Cluster from Gemini Adaptive Optics Data
- First Science Observations with SOFIA/FORCAST: The FORCAST Mid-infrared Camera
- Distributed star formation throughout the Galactic Center cloud Sgr B2
- HST/NICMOS Paschen-alpha Survey of the Galactic Center: Overview
- Isolated Wolf-Rayet Stars and O Supergiants in the Galactic Center Region Identified via Paschen-alpha Excess
- Point Sources from a Spitzer IRAC Survey of the Galactic Center
- Recent star formation in the inner Galactic Bulge seen by ISOGAL II -- The Central Molecular Zone
- Herschel observations of the Sgr B2 cores: Hydrides, warm CO, and cold dust
- A VLA H92alpha Study of the Arched Filament Complex Near the Galactic Center
- Pinwheels in the Quintuplet Cluster
- Massive Young Stellar Objects in the Galactic Center. I. Spectroscopic Identification from Spitzer/IRS Observations
- SOFIA/FORCAST Imaging of the Circumnuclear Ring at the Galactic Center
- Milky Way Star Forming Complexes and the Turbulent Motion of the Galaxy's Molecular Gas
- Star Formation Rates of Massive Molecular Clouds in the Central Molecular Zone
- Milky Way Supermassive Black Hole: Dynamical Feeding from the Circumnuclear Environment
- A High-Resolution Survey of HI Absorption toward the Central 200 pc of the Galactic Center
- Old supernova dust factory revealed at the Galactic center
- Early stage massive star formation near the Galactic Center: Sgr C
- A New Perspective of the Radio Bright Zone at The Galactic Center: Feedback from Nuclear Activities
- Isolated, Massive Supergiants near the Galactic Center
- Young massive star cluster formation in the Galactic Centre is driven by global gravitational collapse of high-mass molecular clouds
- Isolated massive stars in the Galactic center: The dynamic contribution from the Arches and Quintuplet star clusters
- A Multiwavelength Study of Evolved Massive Stars in the Galactic Center
- The Molecular Counterpart of the Galactic Center Arched Filament HII Complex: OVRO Observations of the CS(2-1) Line
- Massive Star Formation of the Sgr A East HII Regions Near the Galactic Center
- A Catalog of 24um Sources Toward the Galactic Center
- Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph Observations of the Galactic Center: Quantifying the Extreme Ultraviolet/so ft X-ray fluxes
- First results from a large-scale proper motion study of the Galactic Centre
- Spitzer Spectroscopy of the Galactic Supernova Remnant G292.0+1.8: Structure and Composition of the Oxygen-Rich Ejecta
- SOFIA FIFI-LS Observations of Sgr B1: Ionization Structure and Sources of Excitation
- Nature Versus Nurture: Luminous Blue Variable Nebulae in and near Massive Stellar Clusters at the Galactic Center
- Massive Star Formation in the Galactic Center
- Emission Lines in the Near-infrared Spectra of the Infrared Quintuplet Stars in the Galactic Center
- An Infrared Study of the Dust Properties and Geometry of the Arched Filaments HII Region with SOFIA/FORCAST
- IRTF/TEXES Observations of the HII Regions H1 and H2 in the Galactic Centre
- An Apparent Precessing Helical Outflow from a Massive Evolved Star: Evidence for Binary Interaction
- Constraints on distances to Galactic Centre non-thermal filaments from HI absorption
- Dusty Cradles in a Turbulent Nursery: The Sgr A East HII Region Complex at the Galactic Center
- Analysis of the WN star WR 102c, its WR nebula, and the associated cluster of massive stars in the Sickle Nebula
- Infrared Observations of the Quintuplet Proper Members using SOFIA/FORCAST and Gemini/TReCS
Cited by in corpus (7)
- The centres of M83 and the Milky Way: opposite extremes of a common star formation cycle
- SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-InfraRed Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration (FIREPLACE) Survey I: General Results from the Pilot Program
- Constraining the population of isolated massive stars within the Central Molecular Zone
- SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large-Area CMZ Exploration (FIREPLACE) Survey III: Full Survey Data Set
- Sagittarius B1 -- A Patchwork of H II Regions and PhotoDissociation Regions
- The JWST-NIRCam View of Sagittarius C. II. Evidence for Magnetically Dominated HII Regions in the CMZ
- SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration Survey. V. The Magnetic Field Strength and Morphology in the Sagittarius C Complex