IRS 13N: a new comoving group of sources at the Galactic Center

TL;DR

This study identifies a new group of stars near the Galactic Center moving together, suggesting they are very young, and provides the first proper motion measurements of IRS 13N members using high-resolution infrared observations.

Contribution

First proper motion measurements of IRS 13N stars reveal a new comoving group, supporting their classification as very young stellar objects near the Galactic Center.

Findings

IRS 13N forms a new comoving stellar group.

Proper motions differ significantly from IRS 13E.

Data favor the young star hypothesis for IRS 13N.

Abstract

Context: The Galactic Center IRS 13E cluster is located ~3.2'' from SgrA*. It is an extremely dense stellar association containing several Wolf-Rayet and O-type stars, at least four of which show a common velocity. Only half an arcsecond north from IRS 13E there is a complex of extremely red sources, so-called IRS 13N. Their nature is still unclear. Based on the analysis of their colors, there are two main possibilities: (1) dust embedded sources older than few Myr, or (2) extremely young objects with ages less than 1Myr. Aims: We present the first proper motion measurements of IRS 13N members, and additionally give proper motions of four of IRS 13E stars resolved in the L'-band. Methods: The L'-band (3.8 micron) observations have been carried out using the NACO adaptive optics system at the ESO VLT. Proper motions have been obtained by linear fitting of the stellar positions extracted by StarFinder as a function of time, weighted by positional uncertainties. Results: We show that six of seven resolved northern sources show a common proper motion, thus revealing a new comoving group of stars in the central half parsec of the Milky Way. The common proper motions of IRS 13E and IRS 13N clusters are significantly (>5sigma) different. We also performed a fitting of the positional data for those stars onto Keplerian orbits, assuming SgrA* as the center of the orbit. Our results favor the very young stars hypothesis.