An Enigmatic Object near the Center of the Galaxy

The enigma of GCIRS 3 - Constraining the properties of the mid-infrared reference star of the central parsec of the Milky Way with optical long baseline interferometry

On the second page of this preprint there's a fascinating image of the center of our galaxy in mid infrared, highlighting GCIRS3, the hottest and most compact of the sources of thermal dust irradiation in that vicinity. It appears that this object is a cool dust-forming carbon star.