ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) – II. 3 mm continuum images

Ginsburg, A, Walker, DL, Barnes, AT, Lu, X, Sánchez-Monge, Á, Pineda, JE, Pound, MW, Hsieh, PY, Immer, K, Zhang, Q, Budaiev, N, Gramze, SR, Jeff, D, Cook, C, Bulatek, A, Mills, EAC, Bally, J, Colzi, L, García, P, Henshaw, JD ORCID: 0000-0001-9656-7682 et al (2026) ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) – II. 3 mm continuum images. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 552 (2). ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

The ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) has mapped (Formula presented) square arcminutes at 3 mm towards the centre of our Galaxy. ACES provides the first large-scale, high-resolution ((Formula presented) ) view of the central (Formula presented) parsecs of the Milky Way. In this work, we describe the continuum data processing and present the continuum data products. In the combined mosaic of 45 individual ALMA mosaics, the typical RMS noise achieved is (Formula presented) mJy per (Formula presented) beam, though there is a tail of substantially higher noise towards regions with bright continuum structure, especially around Sgr A* and Sgr B2. In-band spectral indices are measurable for a small fraction of the brightest and most compact sources, enabling distinction between dust-dominated and free-free- or synchrotron-dominated sources. To recover emission on large angular scales, we present the GBT MUSTANG-2 Three millimetre Extended Nucleus Survey (TENS), a new 10 arcsec resolution survey of the CMZ, which we combine with the ACES image by feathering. To demonstrate the quality and reliability of the ACES data, we compare to previously published ALMA data obtained with higher resolution and sensitivity, finding overall good agreement with past results, but some disagreement towards the brightest sources.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Galaxy: centre; ISM: structure; 5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5107 Particle and high energy physics; 5109 Space sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date of acceptance:	4 February 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	2 November 2026
Date Deposited:	02 Nov 2026 15:27
Last Modified:	02 Nov 2026 15:27
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/stag354
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29798

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