Spectral and spatial resolution of the 12.8 micron Ne II emission from the galactic center
High-resolution spectra of the Ne II 12.8-micron fine-structure line in emission from the galactic-center cloud Sgr A West show a line-center LSR radial velocity of +75 (+ or - 20) km/s and a velocity dispersion of about 200 km/s. The line has been observed with spectral resolution as high as 0.10 micron/cm and spatial resolution as high as 8 arcsec. This appears to provide a direct measurement of conditions in the 45-arcsec ionized region at the galactic center. The radial velocity and dispersion are more or less independent of position and indicate that events as recent as the last 10,000 years have given the ionized gas a systematic motion with respect to the massive stellar component of material at the galactic center. An upper limit of the order of 4 million solar masses for the mass within 0.8 pc of the galactic center is obtained from the velocity dispersion.