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Infrared Imaging of the Arches Cluster - Adaptive Optics in the Densest Region of the Milky Way

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

Andrea Stolte ,
Eva K. Grebel ,
Wolfgang Brandner  and
Donald F. Figer
Andrea Stolte
Affiliation:
MPIA, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Eva K. Grebel
Affiliation:
MPIA, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Wolfgang Brandner
Affiliation:
ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
Donald F. Figer
Affiliation:
STScI, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

Abstract

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The Arches cluster - located only 11′ from the Galactic Center (GC) - is one of the densest and richest young star clusters in the Milky Way. With an age of only about 2 Myr, it is ideally suited to study massive cluster formation in an extreme environment. We find an IMF slope of Γ = −0.77 from 5 to 100 M⊙, in good agreement with the results from HST/NICMOS from Figer et al. (1999). The limiting factor in the dense cluster center is crowding. With the new AO systems, high resolution analysis of the dense cluster region combined with very deep infrared photometry is available. We have analysed deep H and K′ images of the cluster center obtained with the GEMINI/Hokupa'a adaptive optics system. Colour-magnitude diagrams and the IMF are constructed from these data. A comparison with isochrones yields the mass function.

Type
Part 1. The Star Clusters of Local Group Galaxies
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 207: Extragalactic Star Clusters , 2002 , pp. 132 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2002 

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