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Near‐infrared adaptive optics observations of the Galactic Center with NAOS/CONICA (ESO) and GriF (CFHT)
Author(s) -
Clénet Y.,
Rouan D.,
Lacombe F.,
Gendron E.,
Gratadour D.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200385039
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , astronomy , supergiant , adaptive optics , galactic center , infrared , stars , photometry (optics) , spectrograph , very large telescope , spectral line
We report results obtained with GriF, an infrared 3‐D spectrograph coupled to the CFHT adaptive optics system PUEO, and NAOS/CONICA, the ESO VLT adaptive optics system and its associated near‐infrared camera. Observations with GriF aimed at surveying, for the first time at the diffraction limit, the so‐called “He I stars”, currently identified as hot massive stars in transition between the blue supergiant and the Wolf‐Rayet phases. NAOS/CONICA has delivered the first thermal infrared images of the Galactic Center region with a spatial resolution down to 0.1″ Based on the Science Verification observations of NAOS/CONICA, we discuss here the photometry of S2, the closest star to Sgr A*, the discovery of a new bow‐shock star and the putative detection of sources gravitationally amplified by Sgr A*.