Related papers: Galactic Kites
We present first results from a spectroscopic survey of 2000 F/G stars 0.5--5kpc from the Galactic plane, obtained with the 2dF facility on the AAT. These data show the mean rotation velocity of the thick disk about the Galactic center a…
We study how structural properties of globular clusters and dwarf galaxies are linked to their orbits in the Milky Way halo. From the inner to the outer halo, orbital energy increases and stellar-systems gradually move out of internal…
We are living in a dusty universe: dust is ubiquitously seen in a wide variety of astrophysical environments, ranging from circumstellar envelopes around cool red giants to supernova ejecta, from diffuse and dense interstellar clouds and…
Star formation often occurs within or nearby stellar clusters. Irradiation by nearby massive stars can photoevaporate protoplanetary disks around young stars (so-called proplyds) which raises questions regarding the ability of planet…
Interstellar dust links the formation of the first stars to the rocky planet we inhabit by playing a pivotal role in the cooling and fragmentation of molecular clouds, and catalyzing the formation of water and organic molecules. Despite its…
The destiny of planetary systems through the late evolution of their host stars is very uncertain. We report a metal-rich gas disk around a moderately hot and young white dwarf. A dynamical model of the double-peaked emission lines…
The presence of unseen halos of ``dark matter'' has long been inferred from the high rotation speeds of gas and stars in the outer parts of spiral galaxies$^{1}$. The volume density of this dark matter decreases less quickly from the…
Dust emission at sub-millimetre wavelengths allows us to trace the early phases of star formation in the Universe. In order to understand the physical processes involved in this mode of star formation, it is essential to gain knowledge…
Thin halo star streams originate from the evaporation of globular clusters and therefore provide information about the early epoch globular cluster population. The observed tidal tails from halo globular clusters in the Milky Way are much…
We use the Herschel Hi-GAL survey data to study the spatial distribution in Galactic longitude and latitude of the interstellar medium and of dense, star-forming clumps in the inner Galaxy. The peak position and width of the latitude…
The recent identification of one or two sub-parsec disks of young, massive stars orbiting the ~4e6 solar mass black hole Sgr A* has prompted an "in-situ" scenario for star formation in disks of gas formed from a cloud captured from the…
By selecting in the RAVE-DR4 survey the stars located between 1 and 2 kpc above the Galactic plane, we question the consistency of the simplest three-component model (thin disc, thick disc, halo) for the Milky Way. We confirm that the…
We present a reconstruction of the line-of-sight motions of the local interstellar medium (ISM) based on the combination of a model of the three-dimensional dust density distribution within 1.25 kpc from the Sun and the HI and CO line…
The Milky Way dark matter halo is formed from the accretion of smaller subhalos. These sub-units also harbor stars---typically old and metal-poor---that are deposited in the Galactic inner regions by disruption events. In this Letter, we…
Thick disks are faint and extended stellar components found around several disk galaxies including our Milky Way. The Milky Way thick disk, the only one studied in detail, contains mostly old disk stars (~10 Gyr), so that thick disks are…
The high-velocity clouds of atomic hydrogen, discovered about 35 years ago, have velocities inconsistent with simple Galactic rotation models that generally fit the stars and gas in the Milky Way disk. Their origins and role in Galactic…
Within a half-parsec from the Galactic center (GC), there is a population of coeval young stars which appear to reside in a coherent disk. Surrounding this dynamically-cool stellar system, there is a population of stars with a similar age…
Paczy\'nski (1986) suggested that ``dark" objects in the halo of our Galaxy could enhance the luminosity of foreground stars, acting as gravitational microlenses. Such events has been recently reported by different collaborations. We assume…
The first and second moments of stellar velocities encode important information about the formation history of the Galactic halo. However, due to the lack of tangential motion and inaccurate distances of the halo stars, the velocity moments…
Infrared photometry in the J (1.2 microns), H (1.7 microns), Ks (2.2 microns) bands from the 2MASS catalogue and in the W1 (3.4 microns), W2 (4.6 microns), W3 (12 microns), W4 (22 microns) bands from the WISE catalogue is used to reveal the…