The Galactic Centre at infrared wavelengths: towards the highest spatial resolution

Abstract

We now know that our Galaxy harbors at its centre a supermassive 3.6 × 10 6 M ⊙ black hole. This result came after more than 2 decades of infrared studies of the Galactic Centre and important instrumental developments in infrared detectors and in high spatial resolution techniques. Adaptive optics, which allows diffraction-limited infrared observations and enhanced sensitivity, was actually the major breakthrough in this respect. We introduce in the first section of this article what was our knowledge of the Galactic Centre before the advent of adaptive optics. In the second section, after a reminder of the first adaptive optics observations of this region, we highlight the specificities of Galactic Centre adaptive optics observations. In the third and fourth sections, we present the major results obtained from adaptive optics observations of the Galactic Centre: the case of the supermassive black hole and the paradox of youth. In the fifth section, we introduce two main future facilities that will provide even higher spatial resolutions, Gravity—a second generation VLTI instrument—and Extremely Large Telescopes, and the improvements that we expect with these new instruments in our knowledge of the Galactic Centre region. We conclude in the last section. To cite this article: Y. Clénet et al., C. R. Physique 8 (2007).