Young Stars in the Galactic Center

Caption:
Left:
A 7'' x 10'' K-band image scaled to show the location of the closest He-I emission line stars, which were the first stars to raise the debate of how star formation might proceed in the vicinity of the black hole.

Bottom Right:
A blow-up of 1'' x 1'' region containing the Sgr A* cluster, a region centered on the black hole which shows a stellar density enhancement and which contains stars that appear to be young and massive, that are an order of magnitude closer to the central black hole than the He-I stars, dramatically amplifying the problem of star formation in the vicinity of a black hole.

Top Right:
A spectrum of S0-2, which shows features that are consistent with an O9 main-sequence star.

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References and Credit: