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Galactic nuclei often harbor a disproportionately large amount of star formation activity with respect to their surrounding disks. Not coincidentally, the density of molecular material in galactic nuclei is often also much greater than that…

The presence of young massive stars in the Galactic Centre (GC) raises questions about star formation near the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Additionally, the initial mass function (IMF) in this region appears different from the…

The question of the origin of the gas supplying the accretion process is pertinent especially in the context of enhanced activity of Galactic Center during the past few hundred years, seen now as echo from the surrounding molecular clouds,…

We present a panchromatic study of 11 (sub-)millimetre selected DSFGs with spectroscopically confirmed redshift ($1.5< z_{\rm spec}<3$) in the GOODS-S field, with the aim of constraining their astrophysical properties (e.g., age, stellar…

We suggest that "$G$ objects" recently discovered in the Galactic Center may be clouds of gas bound by the gravitational field of stellar-mass black holes produced in the interactions of sublunar primordial black holes with neutron stars.…

The orbital distribution of the S-star cluster surrounding the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way is analyzed. A tight, roughly exponential dependence of the pericenter distance r$_{p}$ on orbital eccentricity…

A summary of the current knowledge on hypervelocity stars (HVSs). HVSs are fascinating because their properties are linked to Sgr A* and the stellar environment of the Galactic Center. Observing the distribution of HVSs can address: 1) the…

We discuss the composition of dust and ice along the line of sight to the Galactic Center (GC) based on analysis of mid-infrared spectra (2.4-13 micron) from the Short Wavelength Spectrometer on the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). We have…

The scattering diameters of Sgr A* and several nearby OH masers (~ 1" at 1 GHz) indicate that a region of enhanced scattering is along the line of sight to the Galactic center. The scattering diameter of an extragalactic source seen through…

Recent measurements of stellar orbits provide compelling evidence that the compact radio source Sagittarius A* at the Galactic Centre is a 3.6-million-solar-mass black hole. Sgr A* is remarkably faint in all wavebands other than the radio…

We report the discovery of a previously unknown massive Galactic star cluster at l=29.22, b=-0.20. Identified visually in mid-IR images from the Spitzer GLIMPSE survey, the cluster contains at least 8 late-type supergiants, based on…

Super star clusters are the end product of star formation under the most extreme conditions. As such, studying how their final stellar populations are assembled from their natal progenitor gas clouds can provide strong constraints on star…

In the present-day universe, the most massive galaxies are ellipticals located in the cores of galaxy clusters, harboring the heaviest super-massive black holes (SMBHs). However the mechanisms that drive the early growth phase and…

We analyse the population of bright star clusters in the interacting galaxy pair NGC 4038/39 detected with HST WFPC1 by Whitmore & Schweizer (1995) using our spectrophotometric evolutionary synthesis models for various initial…

Sgr E is a massive star formation complex found toward the Galactic center that consists of numerous discrete, compact HII regions. It is located at the intersection between the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) and the far dust lane of the…

<Context.> Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) at the dynamical center of galaxies appear to have a complex star formation history. This suggests repeated star formation even in the influence of the strong tidal field from supermassive black…

It is widely accepted that black holes (BHs) with masses greater than a million solar masses (Msun) lurk at the centres of massive galaxies. The origins of such `supermassive' black holes (SMBHs) remain unknown (Djorgovski et al. 1999),…

We investigate the composition of the solid-state materials in the winds around S-type AGB stars. The S stars produce dust in their wind that bears a resemblance to the dust produced in some O-rich AGB stars. However, the reported…

Recent observations of the Galactic center in high-energy gamma-rays (above 0.1TeV) have opened up new ways to study this region, from understanding the emission source of these high-energy photons to constraining the environment in which…

We obtained U_330 and B band images of the M31 nucleus using the High Resolution Camera of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The spatial resolution in the U_330-band, 0.03" FWHM, or 0.1 pc at M31, is…