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Physical Conditions in the Central Parsec Modeled from Mid‐Infrared Imaging Photometry
Author(s) -
Gezari Dan,
Dwek Eli,
Varosi Frank
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.200385102
Subject(s) - physics , opacity , astrophysics , photometry (optics) , spectral energy distribution , infrared , extinction (optical mineralogy) , astronomy , luminous infrared galaxy , wavelength , galaxy , stars , optics
We have made array camera images of the central parsec with 1 arcsec resolution at eight midinfrared wavelengths between 4.8 and 20.0 μ m. The images are used to model the temperature, opacity and bolometric luminosity distributions of the emitting dust in the central parsec, as well as the dust extinction in the line of sight. Several new results emerge from the model calculations: 1) The compact IRS sources are all local peaks in the emitting dust temperature distribution. 2) The IRS source positions are local minima in the emitting dust opacity distribution. 3) The opacity and temperature distributions are generally complementary. 4) The compact IRS sources are very luminous, particularly the IRS3 and IRS1 (L ∼ 3 × 10 5 L ⊙ ), and they make a significant contribution to the energy budget of infrared complex.