James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Arxiv: The JWST Galactic Center Survey -- A White Paper Published: 10/18/2023 3:00:49 PM Updated: 3/14/2024 4:47:17 PM

Paper abstract: The inner hundred parsecs of the Milky Way hosts the nearest supermassiveblack hole, largest reservoir of dense gas, greatest stellar density, hundredsof massive main and post main sequence stars, and the highest volume density ofsupernovae in the Galaxy. As the nearest environment in which it is possible tosimultaneously observe many of the extreme processes shaping the Universe, itis one of the most well-studied regions in astrophysics. Due to its proximity,we can study the center of our Galaxy on scales down to a few hundred AU, ahundred times better than in similar Local Group galaxies and thousands oftimes better than in the nearest active galaxies. The Galactic Center (GC) istherefore of outstanding astrophysical interest. However, in spite of intenseobservational work over the past decades, there are still fundamental thingsunknown about the GC. JWST has the unique capability to provide us with thenecessary, game-changing data. In this White Paper, we advocate for a JWSTNIRCam survey that aims at solving central questions, that we have identifiedas a community: i) the 3D structure and kinematics of gas and stars; ii)ancient star formation and its relation with the overall history of the MilkyWay, as well as recent star formation and its implications for the overallenergetics of our galaxy's nucleus; and iii) the (non-)universality of starformation and the stellar initial mass function. We advocate for a large-area,multi-epoch, multi-wavelength NIRCam survey of the inner 100\,pc of the Galaxyin the form of a Treasury GO JWST Large Program that is open to the community.We describe how this survey will derive the physical and kinematic propertiesof ~10,000,000 stars, how this will solve the key unknowns and provide avaluable resource for the community with long-lasting legacy value.