Related papers: The Galactic Bar
Some observations indicate that the Milky Way has two inner components, a bulge and a long bar, which present a misalignment of about 20 degrees that is against the predictions of some theoretical models that are based on numerical…
Over the last decade there have been a series of results supporting the hypothesis of the existence of a long thin bar in the Milky Way with a half-length of 4.5 kpc and a position angle of around 45 deg. This is apparently a very different…
Both the three-dimensional density of red clump giants and the gas kinematics in the inner Galaxy indicate that the pattern speed of the Galactic bar could be much lower than previously estimated. Here, we show that such slow bar models are…
A map of the projected density of the old stellar population of the Galactic Bulge region is reconstructed using 2MASS data. By making a combination of the H and K photometric bands, it is possible to overcome the effect of reddening, and…
Elongated bar-like features are ubiquitous in galaxies, occurring at the centers of approximately two-thirds of spiral disks in the nearby Universe. Due to gravitational interactions between the bar and the other components of galaxies, it…
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…
A complete map of the 3D distribution of molecular (CO) gas was constructed using a realistic dynamical model of the gas flow in the barred potential of the Milky Way. The map shows two prominent spiral arms starting at the bar ends…
The Milky Way is made up of a central bar, a disk with embedded spiral arms, and a dark matter halo. Observational and theoretical constraints for the characteristic parameters of these components will be presented, with emphasis on the…
Little is known about the portion of the Milky Way lying beyond the Galactic center at distances of more than 9 kilo-parsec from the Sun. These regions are opaque at optical wavelengths due to absorption by interstellar dust, and distances…
Our location in the Milky Way provides an exceptional opportunity to gain insight on the galactic evolution processes, and complement the information inferred from observations of external galaxies. Since the Milky Way is a barred galaxy,…
Observations show a clear vertical metallicity gradient in the Galactic bulge, which is often taken as a signature of dissipative processes in the formation of a classical bulge. Various evidence shows, however, that the Milky Way is a…
The Milky Way is the only galaxy for which we can resolve individual stars at all evolutionary phases, from the Galactic center to the outskirt. The last decade, thanks to the advent of near IR detectors and 8 meter class telescopes, has…
Identifying the structure of our Galaxy has always been fraught with difficulties, and while modern surveys continue to make progress building a map of the Milky Way, there is still much to understand. The arm and bar features are important…
The nature, size and orientation of the dominant structural components in the Milky Way's inner ~4 kpc - specifically the bulge and bar - have been the subject of conflicting interpretations in the literature. We present a different…
The gas dynamics in the Galactic disc is modeled by releasing an initially axisymmetric SPH component in a completely self-consistent and symmetry-free 3D N-body simulation of the Milky Way in which the stellar components display a…
The Galactic bulge is now considered to be the inner three-dimensional part of the Milky Way's bar. It has a peanut shape and is characterized by cylindrical rotation. In N-body simulations, box/peanut bulges arise from disks through bar…
Context: Because of our viewing point within the Galactic disc, it is extremely difficult to observe the spiral structure of the Milky Way. Aims: To clarify the structure of the Galaxy by re-examination of gas distributions and data from…
Near the center of our Milky Way is a bar-like structure and the so-called Expanding 3-kpc arms. We currently have limited knowledge of this important region, since we are about 8.2 kpc from the center and cannot directly observe it at…
Understanding the 3D structure of the Milky Way is a crucial step in deriving properties of the star-forming regions, as well as the Galaxy as a whole. We present a novel 3D map of the Milky Way plane that extends to 10 kpc distance from…
Most of the observed and simulated galactic bars are symmetric in the face-on view. However, there are indeed cases of bars that are off-center with respect to the disk or have an asymmetric shape. The only well-known example showing both…