Related papers: Exploring the pertubed Milky Way disk and the subs…
We use numerical simulations to test the feasibility of the suggestion by Ibata et al. (1994) that the excess population of stars which they discovered in the Sagittarius region may be the disrupted remains of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We…
We present a detailed analysis of the kinematics of 112 stars that mostly comprise the high velocity S-cluster and orbit the super massive black hole SgrA* at the center of the Milky Way. For 39 of them orbital elements are known, for the…
The flatness of the rotation curve inside spiral galaxies is interpreted as the imprint of a halo of invisible matter. Using the deepest observations of distant galaxies, we have investigated how large disks could have been formed.…
We use N-body simulations to explore the possibility that the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy was originally a late-type, rotating disc galaxy, rather than a non-rotating, pressure-supported dwarf spheroidal galaxy, as previously thought. We…
Based on the observed paucity of the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellites of the Milky Way at small Galactocentric distances, we put forward the hypothesis that subsequent to the formation of the Milky Way and its satellites, those dSphs that…
Recent knowledge of Galactic dynamics suggests that stars radially move on the disk when they encounter transient spiral arms that are naturally generated during the process of disk formation. We argue that a large movement of the solar…
The outer disk of the Milky Way Galaxy is warped and flared. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain these phenomena, but none have quantitatively reproduced both features. Recent work has demonstrated that the Galactic stellar…
We use the Stripe 82 proper motion catalogue of Bramich et al. (2008) to study the kinematics of Galactic disk stars in the solar neighborhood. We select samples of dwarf stars with reliable spectra and proper motions. They have cylindrical…
By means of N-body simulations we study the response of a galactic disc to a minor merger event. We find that non-self-gravitating, spiral-like features are induced in the thick disc. As we have shown in a previous work, this "ringing" also…
Gaia has revealed a clear signal of disequilibrium in the solar neighborhood in the form of a spiral (or snail) feature in the vertical phase-space distribution. We investigate the possibility that this structure emerges from ongoing…
We present deep V and I photometry of stellar field in four previously unstudied low latitude regions of the Galactic disk. All observed fields are located at the western side of the Galactic Center in the direction of the Coalsack-Carina…
I review observational data on the kinematic properties of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the halo of the Milky Way and beyond. The present data confirm previous claims that these galaxies have unusually large central velocity dispersions.…
Most of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group were probably formed via environmental processes like the tidal interaction with the Milky Way. We study this process via N-body simulations of dwarf galaxies evolving on seven different…
We use the clump giants of the disk as standard candles calibrated from Hipparcos parallaxes in order to map their distribution with two new near-IR surveys of the Galactic plane: UKIDSS-GPS and VVV. We explore different selection cuts of…
We study the relationship between Galactic location ($R, Z$) and photometric activity for 3.6 million M dwarf stars within 1 kpc of the Sun. For this purpose, we identify 906 unique flare events as a proxy for magnetic activity from the…
Our situation as occupants of the Milky Way (MW) Galaxy, bombarded by the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, provides an intimate view of physical processes that can lead to the dynamical heating of a galactic disc. While this evolution is…
Solid insight into the physics of the inner Milky Way is key to understanding our Galaxy's evolution, but extreme dust obscuration has historically hindered efforts to map the area along the Galactic mid-plane. New comprehensive…
We employ optical photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy to study a field toward the open cluster Tombaugh 1, where we identify a complex population mixture, that we describe in terms of young and old Galactic thin disk. Of particular…
We have assembled a large-area spectroscopic survey of giant stars in the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy core. Using medium resolution (R ~15,000), multifiber spectroscopy we have measured velocities of these stars, which extend up to 12…
Based on high-resolution spectra obtained during gravitational microlensing events we present a detailed elemental abundance analysis of 32 dwarf and subgiant stars in the Galactic bulge. [ABRIDGED], we now have 58 microlensed bulge dwarfs…