Subaru/MOIRCS NIR obs. of the GC region

In addition, the extinction varies on scales of arcseconds. It is therefore highly challenging to distinguish between different stars photometrically and to identify young, massive, or intermediate-age stars that can trace recent star formation.

Here we report the results of near-infrared imaging observations of a 6.0'x3.3' region at the GC that encompasses the northwest part of the nuclear star cluster and parts of the nuclear stellar disk. We carried out the observations with the wide-field camera MOIRCS of the Subaru Telescope, using three narrowband (NB) filters. Two of the filters trace the stellar continuum, while we use the third one to measure the strength of the CO absorption features that are prominent in the spectra of cool giants, shallower in the spectra of warmer stars, and absent in young massive stars.