Inquiring Into the Secrets of the Galactic Center

Anja Feldmeier preparing for a full observation night in the control room at the Gemini South telescope, Chile.

Gemini’s “Bring One, Get One” program, which provides support for early-career scientists to observe at Gemini, recently allowed Anja Feldmeier, a PhD student at ESO in Garching, Germany, to participate in observations at Gemini South as part of a program to study the rotational curve of the Galactic Center.

Anja works with Dr. Nadine Neumayer (MPIA, Heidelberg) to observe the central part of the Milky Way’s galactic plane, home to the nuclear star cluster observed by the team with Flamingos-2 (F-2). Neumayer and Feldmeier acquired spectra from the star cluster in order to measure the radial velocities of the stars. In this way, they measure the rotation of the cluster and study its stellar population. The goal of the research is to understand its formation history.

“F-2, at Gemini South, is the only instrument with which we can observe such a large field of view in a reasonable amount of time,” said Anja. The field of view of F-2 is about 20 arcminutes across, or about 110 parsecs across at the distance of the Galactic Center. “Although our observations require a non-standard drift scan mode, the Gemini staff was very supportive and made it possible for us to get the data we need to reach our science goal,” she explained.