The DOI matches its Crossref record; 12 of the 12 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Hubble Space Telescope/NICMOS Observations of Massive Stellar Clusters near the Galactic Center
Open accessAbstract
We report Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) Near-Infrared Camera and Multiobject Spectrometer (NICMOS) observations of the Arches and Quintuplet clusters, two extraordinary young clusters near the Galactic center. For the first time, we have identified main-sequence stars in the Galactic center with initial masses well below 10 M ☉ . We present the first determination of the initial mass function (IMF) for any population in the Galactic center, finding an IMF slope that is significantly more positive (Γ ≈ -0.65) than the average for young clusters elsewhere in the Galaxy (Γ ≈ -1.4). The apparent turnoffs in the color-magnitude diagrams suggest cluster ages that are consistent with the ages implied by the mixture of spectral types in the clusters; we find τ age ~ 2 ± 1 Myr for the Arches cluster and τ age ~ 4 ± 1 Myr for the Quintuplet. We estimate total cluster masses by adding the masses of observed stars down to the 50% completeness limit and then extrapolating down to a lower mass cutoff of 1 M ☉ . Using this method, we find ≳10 4 M ☉ for the total mass of the Arches cluster. Such a determination for the Quintuplet cluster is complicated by the double-valued mass-magnitude relationship for clusters with ages ≳3 Myr. We find a lower limit of 6300 M ☉ for the total cluster mass and suggest a best estimate of twice this value, which accounts for the outlying members of the cluster. Both clusters have masses that place them as the two most massive young clusters in the Galaxy.
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Cites
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Self-citationSome Physical parameters of early-type stars
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Self-citationMassive Stars in the Quintuplet Cluster
Figer, D. F., McLean, I. S., & Morris, M. (1999) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/306931 · Cited by 352
Self-citationThe Discovery of Hot Stars near the Galactic Center Thermal Radio Filaments
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Cited by
On the variation of the initial mass function
Kroupa, P. (2001) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04022.x · Cited by 7,499
The Galactic Center massive black hole and nuclear star cluster
Genzel, R., Eisenhauer, F., & Gillessen, S. (2010) · Reviews of Modern Physics · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.82.3121 · Cited by 1,236
The Two Young Star Disks in the Central Parsec of the Galaxy: Properties, Dynamics, and Formation
Paumard, T., Genzel, R., Martins, F., Nayakshin, S., Beloborodov, A. M., Levin, Y., Trippe, S., Eisenhauer, F., Ott, T., Gillessen, S., et al. (2006) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/503273 · Cited by 690
The Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center
Melia, F., & Falcke, H. (2001) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.39.1.309 · Cited by 498
Murray, N., Quataert, E., & Thompson, T. A. (2010) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/709/1/191 · Cited by 476
Metadata
- Authors
- Figer, D. F., Kim, S. S., Morris, M., Serabyn, E., Rich, R. M., & McLean, I. S.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 1999-11-10
- Volume
- 525
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 750-758
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W2073819674
- Cited by
- 393
- References
- 12
- FWCI
- 16.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
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