Related papers: Observed kinematics of the Milky Way nuclear stell…
We present parsec-scale kinematics of eleven nearby galactic nuclei, derived from adaptive-optics assisted integral-field spectroscopy at (near-infrared) CO band-head wavelengths. We focus our analysis on the balance between ordered…
While orbital analysis studies were so far mainly focused on the Galactic halo, it is possible now to do these studies in the heavily obscured region close to the Galactic Centre. We aim to do a detailed orbital analysis of stars located in…
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…
Measurements of stellar velocities and variable X-ray emission near the centre of the Milky Way have provided the strongest evidence so far that the dark mass concentrations seen in many galactic nuclei are likely supermassive black holes,…
We show that in the anticenter region, between Galactic longitudes of $110^\circ<l<229^\circ$, there is an oscillating asymmetry in the main sequence star counts on either side of the Galactic plane using data from the Sloan Digital Sky…
Using a sample of 69,919 red giants from the SDSS-III/APOGEE Data Release 12, we measure the distribution of stars in the [$\alpha$/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] plane and the metallicity distribution functions (MDF) across an unprecedented volume of the…
The velocity dispersions of stars near the Sun are known to increase with stellar age, but age can be difficult to determine so a proxy like the abundance of alpha elements (e.g., Mg) with respect to iron, [alpha/Fe], is used. Here we…
We investigate the three-dimensional asymmetrical kinematics and present time stamps of the Milky Way disk between Galactocentric distances of $R=12$ and 15 \,kpc, using red clump stars selected from the LAMOST Galactic survey, also with…
The center of our disk galaxy, the Milky Way, is dominated by a boxy/peanut-shaped bulge. Numerous studies of the bulge based on stellar photometry have concluded that the bulge stars are exclusively old. The perceived lack of young stars…
Recent observations of the Galactic center revealed a nuclear disk of young OB stars, in addition to many similar outlying stars with higher eccentricities and/or high inclinations relative to the disk (some of them possibly belonging to a…
The aim of the analysis of data from the Gaia Space Observatory is to obtain kinematic parameters of the collective motion of stars in a part of our galaxy. This research is based on a statistical analysis of the motion of {$55,038,539$}…
The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is a ring-like accumulation of molecular gas in the innermost few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way, generated by the inward transport of matter driven by the Galactic bar. The CMZ is the most extreme…
The Milky Way nuclear star cluster (MWNSC) is located together with its surrounding nuclear stellar disc (MWNSD) in the Galactic centre and they dominate the gravitational potential within the inner 300\,pc. However, the formation and…
We measure the Milky Way's rotation curve over the Galactocentric range 4 kpc <~ R <~ 14 kpc from the first year of data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). We model the line-of-sight velocities of…
The mass distribution of the Galactic disk is constructed from the terminal velocity curve and the mass discrepancy-acceleration relation. Mass models numerically quantifying the detailed surface density profiles are tabulated. For $R_0 =…
We perform high resolution direct $N$-body simulations to study the effect of an accretion disc on stellar dynamics in an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We show that the interaction of the nuclear stellar cluster (NSC) with the gaseous disc…
An accurate knowledge of the dark matter distribution in the Milky Way is of crucial importance for galaxy formation studies and current searches for particle dark matter. In this paper we set new dynamical constraints on the Galactic dark…
Circumnuclear star forming regions, also called hotspots, are often found in the inner regions of some spiral galaxies where intense processes of star formation are taking place. In the UV, massive stars dominate the observed circumnuclear…
The role of gas in the mass assembly at the nuclei of galaxies is still subject to some uncertainty. Stellar nuclear discs bridge the gap between the large-scale galaxy and the central massive objects that reside there. Using a high…
The dark matter distribution of the Milky Way remains among the major unsolved problems about our home galaxy. The masses of other spiral galaxies can be determined from their rotation curves through long-slit spectroscopy. But for the…