Near- and mid-infrared images of NGC 3603 IRS 9

Collection of images of the IRS 9 area in NGC 3603, obtained in different near- and mid-infrared wavebands with different instruments, NIRCAM on the 2.5-m telescope of the Carnegie Institute of Washington Las Campanas Observatory in Chile (top row; wavelengths 1.25 [J-band], 1.65 [H-band], 2.16 µm [K'-band], respectively), ISAAC on the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory (middle row; 2.16 [Ks], 3.78 [L], 4.66 µm [Mnb]) and TIMMI 2 on the ESO 3.6-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory (bottom row; 11.9 [N], 17.8 µm [Q]). All images are centered on the massive protostar IRS 9A and cover an area of 18 x 18 arcsec2, corresponding to 2 x 2 light-years2 at the distance of NGC 3603 (about 22,000 light-years). The highly obscured objects IRS 9A-C are indicated in the N-band image. The obscuration diminishes with increasing wavelength.