SOFIA/FORCAST Galactic Center Legacy Survey: Overview and First Results

The inner ~200 pc of the Milky Way is home to a warm, turbulent interstellar medium that is unlike any other part of our galaxy. This region contains extreme environmental conditions likely similar to starburst galaxies, but its proximity enables us to study star formation on scales that are currently not possible in more distant systems. Curiously, the star formation rate (SFR) predicted by current models of the Galactic center (GC) overestimate the observed value by an order of magnitude. This discrepancy presents a significant issue with our understanding of the region and warrants investigation. In order to better constrain mid-infrared SFR measurements, we recently undertook a mapping of the most energetic portions of the GC using SOFIA/FORCAST at 25 and 37 microns. These observations trace warm dust emission which is ideal for probing recent star formation and present a significant upgrade over previous maps at similar wavelengths which suffer from saturation or are significantly lower spatial resolution. In this talk, we will present an overview of the survey along with first science results and plans for data products that will be released as part of the program.