FORCAST Observations of Sgr C at the Galactic Center

The Galactic center molecular cloud Sgr C hosts a cluster of young massive stars and a large concentration of Galactic center magnetized radio filaments. Many of the sources in this cluster suffer from saturation at 24$\mu$m within our MIPS survey. The proposed measurements will study the cluster of YSOs and diffuse filamentary features concentrated in Sgr C and investigate the hypothesis that the nonthermal radio filaments originate in the cluster of young mass-losing stars. To examine this hypothesis, we will use FORCAST to study the SED of individual massive stars, to determine the nature of the diffuse filamentary structures detected at 24micron, to search for weak filamentary structure associated with stellar objects in Sgr C and to determine the massive star formation rate associated with this cluster. There is a critical need for mid-IR observation of highly embedded, saturated stellar sources and its utility in identifying synchrotron emission from young particles associated with Galactic center nonthermal radio filaments. The proposed measurements is a critical test of the scenario in which nonthermal filaments originate in Galactic center star formation regions.