Related papers: Tracing the Hercules stream around the Galaxy
We present a method for measuring the Sun's motion using the proper motions of Galactic halo star streams. The method relies on the fact that the motion of the stars perpendicular to a stream from a low-mass progenitor is close to zero when…
We present deep near-infrared K_s-band AAT IRIS2 observations of a selected sample of nearby barred spiral galaxies, including some with the strongest known bars. The sample covers a range of Hubble types from SB0- to SBc. The goal is to…
The Magellanic Stream and several high velocity clouds have now been detected in optical line emission. The observed emission measures and kinematics are most plausibly explained by photoionization due to hot, young stars in the Galactic…
Based on published sources, we have created a kinematic database on 220 massive (>10 solar masses) young Galactic star systems located within <3 kpc of the Sun. Out of them, approximately 100 objects are spectroscopic binary and multiple…
Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we reexamine the Eastern Banded Structure (EBS), a stellar debris stream first discovered in Data Release 5 and more recently detected in velocity space by Schlaufman et al. The visible…
Context. Recent studies have suggested that moving groups have a dynamic or "resonant" origin. Under this hypothesis, these kinematic structures become a powerful tool for studying the large-scale structure and dynamics of the Milky Way.…
Runaway stars ejected from the Galactic disk populate the halo of the Milky Way. To predict the spatial and kinematic properties of runaways, we inject stars into a Galactic potential, compute their trajectories through the Galaxy, and…
Stellar streams are sensitive laboratories for understanding the small-scale structure in our Galaxy's gravitational field. Here, we analyze the morphology of the $300S$ stellar stream, which has an eccentric, retrograde orbit and thus…
Galaxy disks evolve through angular momentum transfers between sub-components, like gas, stars, or dark matter halos, through non axi-symmetric instabilities. The speed of this evolution is boosted in presence of a large fraction of cold…
Our Galaxy is a barred spiral. Recent work based on the COBE NIR data implies a small bulge-bar and a disk with a short scale-length. The corotation radius of the bar is in the range 3-4.5 kpc. The stellar density distribution beyond the…
Cold stellar streams---produced by tidal disruptions of clusters---are long-lived, coherent dynamical features in the halo of the Milky Way. Due to their different ages and different positions in phase space, different streams tell us…
We characterize empirically the radial diffusion of stars in the plane of a typical barred disk galaxy by calculating the local spatial diffusion coefficient and diffusion time-scale for bulge-disk-halo N-body self-consistent systems which…
I investigate the suggestion that the Hyades moving group in the Solar neighbourhood is the result of a recent inner Lindblad resonance. I use dynamical "torus" models of the Galaxy to understand the expected distribution of solar…
The secular evolution of disk galaxies is largely driven by resonances between the orbits of 'particles' (stars or dark matter) and the rotation of non-axisymmetric features (spiral arms or a bar). Such resonances may also explain kinematic…
A new physical framework for the emergence of the Hubble sequence is outlined, based on novel analyses performed to quantify the evolution of cold streams of a large sample of galaxies from a state-of-the-art ultra-high resolution,…
Interactions between galaxies are common and are an important factor in determining their physical properties such as position along the Hubble sequence and star-formation rate. There are many possible galaxy interaction mechanisms,…
Evidence from a variety of sources points towards the existence of a bar in the central few kpc of the Galaxy. The measurements roughly agree on the direction of the bar major axis, but other parameters (axis ratio, size, pattern speed) are…
We describe the structure and composition of six major stellar streams in a population of 20 574 local stars in the New Hipparcos Reduction with known radial velocities. We find that, once fast moving stars are excluded, almost all stars…
The study of the Milky Way stellar discs in the context of galaxy formation is discussed. In particular we explore the properties of the Milky Way disc using a new sample of about 550 dwarf stars for which we have recently obtained…
Evolution of galaxies is one of the most actual topics in astrophysics. Among the most important factors determining the evolution are two galactic components which are difficult or even impossible to detect optically: the gaseous disks and…