Extremely large telescopes for complex stellar populations around the Galactic centre

Abstract

The Galactic centre and its surrounding space are important in studying galaxy-scale evolution, and stellar populations therein are expected to have imprints of the long-term evolution. Interstellar extinction, however, severely limits optical observations, thereby requiring infrared observations. In addition, many systems from those in the proximity of the central black hole to foreground objects in the disc overlap in each sightline, which complicates the interpretation of observations of a wide variety of objects. We discuss some important issues concerning the central regions, particularly the Galactic bulge and the Nuclear Stellar Disc (also known as the Central Molecular Zone). An obvious advantage of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) is the deeper limiting magnitudes, but we emphasise the importance of the synergy between the data of deep ELTs and other observational data (e.g. astrometric measurements and the detection of interstellar absorption lines) in order to disentangle the complex stellar populations.