The mom 0 images of the 50 km s−1 cloud. The Sgr A* is labeled with the blue star. The CND is outlined with a cyan dotted line. The CS(2 − 1), SO(23 − 12), HC3N(11 − 10) and CH3CHO(51,4 − 41,3) line images are presented. The synthesized beam is shown on the top left corner with a blue ellipse. — astro-ph.GA
We present data from the ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) Large Program, which provides broad spectral-line and 3 mm continuum coverage of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) at a spatial resolution of 0.1 pc.
The survey delivers homogeneous, wide-field mosaics that enable direct comparisons of the physical and chemical conditions across diverse environments in the Galactic center. In this data release paper, we present the CS(2-1), SO(2_3-1_2), CH3CHO(5_1,4-4_1,3), HC3N(11-10), and H40a lines observed simultaneously within two broad spectral windows.
These lines reveal pronounced spatial and chemical variations across the CMZ, tracing distinct components of molecular gas, shock-affected regions, and ionized structures. The high angular resolution and multi-line capability of the ACES dataset make it a powerful resource for future studies of gas dynamics, star formation activity, and the physical connection between the CMZ and Sgr A*.
Pei-Ying Hsieh, Daniel L. Walker, Adam Ginsburg, Ashley T. Barnes, Xing Lu, Álvaro Sánchez-Monge, Savannah R. Gramze, Nazar Budaiev, Marc W. Pound, Jaime E. Pineda, Claire Cook, Jonathan D. Henshaw, Katharina Immer, Namitha Issac, Desmond Jeff, Fu-Heng Liang, Steven N. Longmore, Elisabeth A.C. Mills, Sergio Martín, Xing Pan, Thushara G.S. Pillai, Qizhou Zhang, John Bally, Cara Battersby, Laura Colzi, Paul T. P. Ho, Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, J. M. Diederik Kruijssen, Maya Petkova, Mattia C. Sormani, Robin G. Tress, Jennifer Wallace, J. Armijos-Abendaño, Lucia Armillotta, N. Bijas, Rojita Budhathoki-Chhetrya, Laura A. Busch, Natalie O. Butterfield, Mélanie Chevance, Ana Karla Díaz-Rodríguez, Christoph Federrath, Rubén Fedriani, Pablo García, Qi-Lao Gu, Rebecca J. Houghton, Yue Hu, Janik Karoly, Ralf S. Klessen, Mark R. Krumholz, Farideh Mazoochi, Francisco Soguera-Lara, Dylan Paré, Denise Riquelme-Vásquez, Víctor M. Rivilla, Miriam G. Santa-Maria, Anika Schmiedeke, Yoshiaki Sofue, Volker Tolls, Q. Daniel Wang, Gwenllian M. Williams, Fengwei Xu, Suinan Zhang
Comments: Accepted to MNRAS. Website is https://sites.google.com/view/aces-cmz/home and data release is linked from there. Pipeline code is at https://github.com/ACES-CMZ/reduction_ACES/releases/tag/2026-02-18
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Cite as: arXiv:2603.00863 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2603.00863v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.00863
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Submission history
From: Pei-Ying Hsieh
[v1] Sun, 1 Mar 2026 01:45:37 UTC (9,790 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00863
Astrobiology,