NGC 3603 -: the Galaxy's most prominent starburst region

Extragalactic starburst regions and their central massive star clusters remain largely unresolved with today's telescopes and instrumentation. Hence it is of prime importance to investigate in detail the internal structure, physics and chemistry of nearby (i.e. located within the Local Group) spatially resolved templates of such starburst regions, even if these may be scaled down in size and dynamics in comparison to their more distant counterparts. NGC 3603, located at a distance of about 7kpc, is probably the closest and most prominent Galactic starburst region. In the course of a multi-wavelength study of NGC 3603 we have obtained data from optical to millimeter wavelengths, allowing us to discuss this region in unprecedented detail. Our most important result is certainly the striking diversity of sources which is contributing to the total flux of the NGC 3603 region at a particular wavelength. Unambiguously, this diversity of sources must be taken into account when integrated light from distant and spatially unresolved starburst regions is modeled and interpreted.