Far-infrared and submillimeter survey of the galactic center and nearby galactic plane

Abstract Maps are presented with 12′ resolution of the Galactic Center and adjacent galactic plane, from l II = 359° to l II = 5°. The data were obtained with the Steward Observatory cryogenically-cooled, balloon-borne telescope. The data are from channels filtered for a bandpass of 70 μ m γ μ m and for a longpass of γ > 80 μ m. For the typical effective temperature of 25 K of a galactic HII region at this spatial resolution, the effective wavelength of the channels are 93 μ and 145 μm. Continuous emission is mapped along the galactic plane in both wavelengths. There are two contrasts between the immediate vicinity of SgrA (l π π > 1° the galactic plane narrows dramatically at 93 μm, while retaining its width at 145 μm. Secondly, the individual sources at l π > 1° (which we associate with HII regions) have greater peak brightness in the 145 μm channel than the 93 μm channel, while SgrA hasapproximately equal peak brightness in each. The maps demonstrate the importance of submillimeter wavelengths to galactic surveys.