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Gas and Dust in the Inner Few Degrees of the Galaxy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2016

Rolf Güsten
Rolf Güsten*
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D–5300 Bonn 1, Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

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This review discusses the complex morphology and perturbed kinematics, as well as the outstanding physical characteristics of the interstellar medium within a few 100 pc of the galactic center. A total of ~107.9 Mo of dense molecular gas, representing ~10% of the Galaxy's neutral mass content, has settled in a thin layer [size: 450 × 40 pc], composed of giant molecular cloud complexes. The spatial distribution is highly asymmetric with respect to the center, and motions differ considerably from equilibrium conditions. The dynamical situation is still obscure (explosive event vs. response to distorted gravitational potential), but any disturbance must have occurred quite recently (τdy ~106 yr). Evidence for large–scale star–forming activity is reviewed, and for a standard IMF, a total star formation rate Φ ~0.5 M0 yr−1 is inferred.

The galactic center clouds differ considerably in their physical and chemical characteristics from GMC's in the outer Galaxy. Pervasive high bulk gas temperatures (Tkin ~70 K), mean H2 densities of n ~104 cm−3, and linewidths ≥10–20 kms−1 are probably a consequence of the clouds' location in the steep gravitational potential of the central bulge.

Type
The Large - Scale Interstellar Medium
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 136: The Galactic Center , 1989 , pp. 89 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1989 

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