The Galactic Center in the Far-infrared

Abstract

We analyze the far-infrared dust emission from the Galactic center region, including the circumnuclear disk (CND) and other structures, using Herschel PACS and SPIRE photometric observations. These Herschel data are complemented by unpublished observations by the Infrared Space Observatory Long Wavelength Spectrometer (ISO-LWS), which used parallel mode scans to obtain photometric images of the region with a larger beam than Herschel but with a complementary wavelength coverage and more frequent sampling with 10 detectors observing at 10 different wavelengths in the range from 46 μm to 180 μm, where the emission peaks. We also include data from the Midcourse Space Experiment at 21.3 μm for completeness. We model the combined ISO-LWS continuum plus Herschel PACS and SPIRE photometric data toward the central 2 pc in Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), a region that includes the CND. We find that the far-infrared spectral energy distribution is best represented by a continuum that is the sum of three gray body curves from dust at temperatures of 90, 44.5, and 23 K. We obtain temperature and molecular hydrogen column density maps of the region. We estimate the mass of the inner part of the CND to be ~5.0 × 10⁴ M _sun, with luminosities: L _cavity ~ 2.2 × 10⁶ L _sun and L _CND ~ 1.5 × 10⁶ L _sun in the central 2 pc radius around Sgr A*. We find from the Herschel and ISO data that the cold component of the dust dominates the total dust mass, with a contribution of ~3.2 × 10⁴ M _sun; this important cold material had escaped the notice of earlier studies that relied on shorter wavelength observations. The hotter component disagrees with some earlier estimates, but is consistent with measured gas temperatures and with models that imply shock heating or turbulent effects are at work. We find that the dust grain sizes apparently change widely across the region, perhaps in response to the temperature variations, and we map that distribution.