Massive Star Formation in the Galactic Center

TL;DR

This paper reviews the young stellar populations in the Galactic center, highlighting its unique environment with the most massive star formation sites and clusters, and discusses the implications for understanding massive star formation history.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the young stellar populations in the Galactic center, linking current observations to the region's star formation history.

Findings

Presence of the most massive stars in the Galaxy

Young stellar clusters are key to understanding star formation episodes

Galactic center's star formation history extends back to early Galaxy formation

Abstract

The Galactic center is a hotbed of star formation activity, containing the most massive star formation site and three of the most massive young star clusters in the Galaxy. Given such a rich environment, it contains more stars with initial masses above 100 \Msun than anywhere else in the Galaxy. This review concerns the young stellar population in the Galactic center, as it relates to massive star formation in the region. The sample includes stars in the three massive stellar clusters, the population of younger stars in the present sites of star formation, the stars surrounding the central black hole, and the bulk of the stars in the field population. The fossil record in the Galactic center suggests that the recently formed massive stars there are present-day examples of similar populations that must have been formed through star formation episodes stretching back to the time period when the Galaxy was forming.