Nancy A. Levenson
Figure 1.
Color composite image
of the inner region
of NGC 253, from
Flamingos-2 images
using the filters J (blue),
H (green), and Ks (red).
Large amounts of dust
completely obscure this
region in optical images.
Science Highlights
Gemini observations identify a stellar supercluster at the heart of a
nearby starburst galaxy, shed new light on quasars as reionization
sources in the early Universe, and make a profound contribution to
our understanding of galaxy formation.
Unshrouding the Buried
Nucleus of a Nearby
Starburst Galaxy
(Inset) Color composite
image of the starburst
core region of NGC 253,
from T-ReCS mid-infrared
images using the filters
Si-2 (blue), [NeII] (green),
and Qa (red). The nucleus
candidate IRC appears
as the brightest object in
this field in the infrared.
NGC 253 (Figure 1, and featured on
the cover of this issue) is famous
among astronomers as the nearest
spiral galaxy hosting a nuclear starburst. The concentrated activity and
associated dust, however, obscure
the center. Guillermo Günthardt
(National University of Cordoba, Argentina) and collaborators have now
used Gemini infrared observations
to identify the galaxy’s nucleus. They
conclude that the brightest near- and
mid-infrared source (a stellar supercluster) marks the nucleus, rather
than a radio source that astronomers
had previously identified.
The team used new multi-wavelength
near-infrared images and spectroscopy obtained with Flamingos-2 on
January 2016
GeminiFocus
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