Nuclear star clusters are common objects in nearby galaxies. It is not fully understood how nuclear clusters form: By the infall of massive star clusters, or by gas accretion and in-situ star formation.
Because the Milky Way nuclear star cluster is at a distance of only 8 kpc, we can spatially resolve its stellar populations and kinematics much better than in external galaxies. This makes the Milky Way nuclear star cluster a reference object for understanding the structure and assembly history of all nuclear star clusters.
I study the stellar kinematics of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster in integrated light towards the half-light radius (4.2pc). I run axisymmetric Jeans models and triaxial Schwarzschild models to understand the large-scale kinematics of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster.
With near-infrared K-band spectroscopy of single resolved stars obtained with KMOS (VLT), I study the star formation history of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster. The data extends to a larger spatial scale than previous stellar populations studies of the Galactic centre.