Nancy A. Levenson
Figure 1.
Color composite image
of the central 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
This 2015 Year-in-Review highlights the innovative science being
done by the Gemini user community.
January 2016
Unshrouding the Buried Nucleus of a Nearby Starburst Galaxy
(Inset) Color composite
image of the 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
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 the
Gemini South telescope, combined
with archival multi-band mid-infrared
images obtained using T-ReCS (Thermal-Region Camera Spectrograph) on
January 2016
2015 Year in Review
GeminiFocus
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