Related papers: What Does the Milky Way Look Like?
We summarize evidence that the halo of the Milky Way comprises two different, and broadly overlapping, stellar components. The two structures exhibit different chemical compositions, spatial distributions, and kinematics. These results were…
We analyze recent observations of the spiral arm width in the Milky Way, as a function of the galactic radius, and we compare this relation with the prediction from the density wave theory. We use the following method: in each spiral arm,…
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…
Recent advances in radio astrometry with the VLBA have resulted in near micro-arcsecond accurate trigonometric parallax and proper motion measurements for masers in star forming regions. We are now poised to directly measure the full…
We combine optical and radio observations to trace the spiral structure in the Third Quadrant of the Milky Way. The optical observations consist of a large sample of young open clusters and associations, whereas the radio observations…
We use the largest open clusters catalogue in the post-Gaia era to provide the observational view of the Galactic disk. By compiling the physical parameters like age, distance, and kinematic information, we investigate the spatial…
Our 'home galaxy' - the Milky Way - is a fairly large spiral galaxy, prototype of the most common morphological class in the local Universe. Although being only a galaxy, it is the only one that can be studied in unique detail: for the…
Using data from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey we present a possible distant spiral arm in the fourth quadrant of the Milky Way. The very distinct and cohesive feature can be traced for over 70 deg as the most extreme positive velocity…
The observed gas dynamics in the Milky Way can only be explained by a bar in the galactic center. Such a bar is directly visible in the near-IR maps of the bulge, where it causes a distinctive asymmetric light distribution pattern. Another…
The Milky Way is a barred galaxy whose central bulge has a box/peanut shape and consists of multiple stellar populations with different orbit distributions. This review describes dynamical and chemo-dynamical equilibrium models for the…
Context: In spiral galaxies, star formation tends to trace features of the spiral pattern, including arms, spurs, feathers, and branches. However, in our own Milky Way, it has been challenging to connect individual star-forming regions to…
The Local arm of the Milky Way, a short spiral feature near the Sun whose existence is known for decades, was recently observed in detail with different tracers. Many efforts have been dedicated to elaborate plausible hypotheses concerning…
Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is a benchmark for understanding disk galaxies. It is the only galaxy whose formation history can be studied using the full distribution of stars from white dwarfs to supergiants. The oldest components provide us…
The rotation curve is significant to research on dark matter and the structure of the Milky Way. But it is a great challenge to measure rotation curve accurately, and different ways obtain distinct results. In this work, we use a DIY small…
This paper presents an equilibrium model of a Milky Way-like spiral galaxy that supports open, mostly 2- and 3-arm spiral patterns but does not form a bar. It is suggested as a more realistic alternative model to that employed by the Agora…
The Galactic center of the Milky-Way harbors a massive black hole (BH) orbited by a diverse population of young and old stars. A significant fraction of the youngest stars ($\sim4-7$ Myr) reside in a thin stellar disk with puzzling…
How do galaxies form and evolve? This is one of the most puzzling questions in astronomy. Galaxy assembly takes place throughout the entire history of the Universe, but our understanding of it is hampered by the unfortunate fact that we can…
Our understanding of the Milky Way disk is rapidly improving with the recent advent of the high quality and vast amount of observational data. We summarize our current view of the structure of the Milky Way disk, such as the masses and…
We derived the three-dimensional distribution of HI gas in the Milky Way Galaxy using the latest HI survey data cubes and rotation curves. The distance of the HI gas was determined by the kinematic distance using a rotation curve. We solved…
Large-scale spiral arms have been revealed in scattered light images of a few protoplanetary disks. Theoretical models suggest that such arms may be driven by and co-rotate with giant planets, which has called for remarkable observational…