Unveiling the Massive Stars in the Galactic Center

Abstract

We present our recent efforts to unveil and understand the origin of massive stars outside the three massive star clusters in the Galactic Center. From our HST/NICMOS survey of the Galactic Center, we have identified 180 Paschen-alpha emitting sources, most of which should be evolved massive stars with strong optically thin stellar winds. Recently, we obtained Gemini GNIRS/NIFS H- and K-band spectra of eight massive stars near the Arches cluster. From their radial velocities, ages and masses, we suggest that in our sample, two stars are previous members of the Arches cluster, while other two stars embedded in the H1/H2 HII regions formed in-situ.