Related papers: The Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone
I review studies of the hot gaseous medium in and around nearby normal disk galaxies, including the Milky Way. This medium represents a reservoir of materials required for lasting star formation, a depository of galactic feedback (e.g.,…
Observations of the stellar content of the bulge of the Milky Way can provide critical guidelines for the interpretation of observations of distant galaxies, in particular for understanding their stellar content and evolution. In this brief…
Observations of the stellar content of the Milky Way's bulge helps to understand the stellar content and evolution of distant galaxies. In this brief overview I will first highlight some recent work directed towards measuring the history of…
We present the highest resolution --- 15 pc (0.03'') --- ALMA $^{12}$CO(2-1) line emission and 1.3mm continuum maps, tracers of the molecular gas and dust, respectively, in the nearby merging galaxy system NGC 6240, that hosts two…
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…
The inner hundred parsecs of the Milky Way hosts the nearest supermassive black hole, largest reservoir of dense gas, greatest stellar density, hundreds of massive main and post main sequence stars, and the highest volume density of…
In this review, I discuss some highlights of recent research on molecular gas in galaxies; large-scale CO maps of nearby galaxies are being made, which extend our knowledge on global properties, radial gradients, and spiral structure of the…
The origin of the high-energy gamma-ray emission from the Milky Way center is still unclear and debated because of the impact of systematics afflicting the measurements from current experiments. Several theories and phenomenological models…
In this review, I highlight a number of recent surveys of molecular gas in nearby spiral galaxies. Through such surveys, more complete observations of the distribution and kinematics of molecular gas have become available for galaxies with…
The 3D structure of The Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) informs our understanding of star formation cycles, black hole accretion, and the evolution of galactic nuclei. However, a comprehensive 3D model has remained elusive, as no…
I present here a review on the high energy phenomena occurring in the Galactic Center region, and report in particular on the results obtained from recent X-ray and gamma-ray observations.
This review examines the state-of-the-art knowledge of high-mass star and massive cluster formation, gained from ambitious observational surveys, which acknowledge the multi-scale characteristics of these processes. After a brief overview…
The interstellar medium (ISM) is a key ingredient in galaxy formation and evolution as it provides the molecular gas reservoir which fuels star formation and supermassive black hole accretion. Yet the ISM is one of the least studied aspects…
The Galactic Center (GC) is an extreme region of the Milky Way that is host to a complex set of thermal and non-thermal structures. In particular, the GC contains high-density gas and dust that is collectively referred to as the Central…
Recent observations show that spiral galaxies are surrounded by extended gaseous halos as predicted by the hierarchical structure formation scenario. The origin and nature of extraplanar gas is often unclear since the halo is continuously…
It is thought that many characteristics of the gaseous features within the central parsec of our Galaxy, are associated with the accretion of ambient plasma by a central concentration of mass. Using a 3D hydrodynamical code, we have been…
We review the current knowledge and understanding of the interstellar medium of our galaxy. We first present each of the three basic constituents - ordinary matter, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields - of the interstellar medium, laying…
A key project of the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO) reported by Martin et al. (2004) is the mapping of CO J=4-3 and J=7-6 emission from the inner Milky Way, allowing determination of gas density and…
Constraints on the molecular gas content of galaxies at high redshift are crucial to further our understanding of star formation and galaxy evolution through cosmic times, as molecular gas is the fuel for star formation. Since its initial…
Detailed observations of the nearest star-forming regions in the Milky Way (MW) provide the ultimate benchmark for studying star formation. The extent to which the results of these Galaxy-based studies can be extrapolated to extragalactic…