ACES. VII. Compact Continuum Source Catalog of the Central Molecular Zone
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2026

The central molecular zone (CMZ) resides in the inner few hundred parsecs of our Galaxy, and despite being the largest reservoir of dense molecular gas in the Milky Way, it has a relatively low present-day star formation rate (SFR) of ∼0.08 M⊙ yr−1. Continuum and spectral line observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) CMZ Exploration Survey (ACES) provide the first full-coverage, high-resolution map of the inner 200 pc of the CMZ at 3 mm. In this paper we present the ACES catalog of compact continuum sources, the most complete catalog of potential sites of star formation in the CMZ to date. Using an automated dendrogram-based source extraction procedure in combination with a by-eye morphological classification scheme, we produce a “full” catalog of 1735 detections in total. Additionally, we use spectral index measurements to generate a “filtered” catalog of 567 sources with minimal contamination from nonthermal filaments and extended free–free emission. We find that 359 (∼63%) of the filtered catalog sources are located at column densities <1023 cm−2, outside of the densest molecular cloud regions, 195 of which have not been identified in previous surveys. After cross-referencing with various catalogs generated from data at different wavelengths, we consider it likely that many of these newly discovered detections are produced by pre-/protostellar sources or compact H ii regions.

Young stellar objects (1834)

Milky Way Galaxy (1054)

Protostars (1302)

Star forming regions (1565)

Star formation (1569)

Galactic center (565)

Författare

J. Wallace

University of Connecticut

C. Battersby

University of Connecticut

Nazar Budaiev

University of Florida

H. P. Hatchfield

University of Connecticut

Ashley T. Barnes

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Taehwa Yoo

University of Florida

Miriam G. Santa-Maria

University of Florida

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

Antonio Daley

University of Florida

Q. D. Wang

University of Massachusetts

Anika Schmiedeke

Green Bank Observatory

Kaitlyn E. Sheriff

University of Kansas

Jairo Armijos-Abendaño

Escuela Politécnica Nacional

D. L. Walker

University of Manchester

G. M. Williams

Aberystwyth University

D. Lipman

University of Connecticut

Farideh Mazoochi

Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)

Natalie Butterfield

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Francisco Nogueras-Lara

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

Y. Sofue

University of Tokyo

R. S. Klessen

Universität Heidelberg

S. C.O. Glover

Universität Heidelberg

K. Immer

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Savannah R. Gramze

University of Florida

Katarzyna M. Dutkowska

Universiteit Leiden

Rojita Buddhacharya

Liverpool John Moores University

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

L. Colzi

Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB)

Ashley Lieber

University of Kansas

Alyssa Bulatek

University of Florida

Michael Wieber

University of Kansas

P. García

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Universidad Catolica del Norte

Denise Riquelme-Vásquez

Universidad de La Serena

Xing Pan

Nanjing University

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

J. K. F. Mann

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Marc W. Pound

University of Maryland

Enrico Di Teodoro

Johns Hopkins University

T. Pillai

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

E. Alkhuja

King Abdulaziz University

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Y. Hu

Institute for Advanced Studies

Dennis Perlot

University of Connecticut

H. A. Smith

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Víctor M. Rivilla

Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB)

Wenyu Jiao

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Feng Wei Xu

Beijing University of Technology

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Jonathan D. Henshaw

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

A. Ginsburg

University of Florida

E. A. C. Mills

University of Kansas

Qizhou Zhang

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

S. Longmore

COOL Research DAO

Liverpool John Moores University

Nguyen M. Khang

Liverpool John Moores University

Galaxy Salo

Liverpool John Moores University

Jakub Poznanski

University of Connecticut

Dylan Páre

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA)

Maya Petkova

Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Astronomi och plasmafysik

I. Jimenez-Serra

Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB)

X. Lu

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Czech Academy of Sciences

S. Martin

European Southern Observatory Santiago

ALMA

A. Sanchez-Monge

Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC)

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

Bijas Najimudeen

University of Manchester

C. Federrath

Australian National University

Tabassum S. Tanvir

Iowa State University

P. Y. Hsieh

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

J. Bally

University of Colorado

P. T. P. Ho

Academia Sinica

East Asian Observatory

Mattia C. Sormani

Universita degli Studi dell'Insubria

University of Surrey

Robin G. Tress

Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)

J. Pineda

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Astrophysical Journal

0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)

Vol. 1009 2 130

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)

Atom- och molekylfysik och optik

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ae990d

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2026-09-28