Mapping and imaging of the galactic center in the near infrared

A cooled CCD has been used to produce an image of the Galactic center at an effective wavelength of 0.9 microns. The image shows two unresolved point sources separated by 3 arcseconds along the Galactic plane. These sources are very close to the compact non-thermal radio source, and the 2.2 micron source IRS-16. While it is possible that the new sources are a pair of highly reddened individual stars or compact clusters, it appears more likely that they are two compact HII regions seen via line emission. This conclusion is supported by a preliminary map of the region in Brackett γ. The 1.2 micron continuum map shows an enhancement near one of the sources, but the other source is not apparent