Our SOFIA Archival Research Program, “IGNITES: Investigating the Galactic Nuclear Infrared Thermal Emission from young Stars” was selected for funding! This program was initiated and led by H Perry Hatchfield. IGNITES will utilize archival FORCAST data (Program ID: 70_0300) to characterize the star-forming properties and thermal evolutionary states of a large sample of dense gas structures identified by the CMZoom survey of compact submillimeter emission. The CMZoom survey is an SMA Large program (~550 hours observing time), which has been used to identify and catalog ~99% of all possible sites of deeply embedded massive SF in the Milky Way’s innermost 500pc. Analysis of this unique catalog with SOFIA will provide the most complete census and characterization to date of deeply embedded massive SF in the cosmologically-representative environment at the center of our Galaxy.

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