Related papers: The Formation of Galactic Bulges
Context: The morphology of massive star formation in the central regions of galaxies is an important tracer of the dynamical processes that govern the evolution of disk, bulge, and nuclear activity. Aims: We present optical imaging of the…
Globular clusters provide a unique probe of galaxy formation and evolution. Here I briefly summarize the known observational properties of globular cluster systems. One re-occurring theme is that the globular cluster systems of spirals and…
A brief overview of the properties of massive star clusters in early-type galaxies is given. All ellipticals (with only one known exception) host massive star clusters in the form of globular clusters, suggesting that their formation is…
Two main scenarios for the formation of the Galactic bulge are invoked, the first one through gravitational collapse or hierarchical merging of subclumps, the second through secular evolution of the Galactic disc. We aim to constrain the…
It is debated whether the Milky Way bulge has the characteristics of a classical bulge sooner than those of a pseudobulge. Detailed abundance studies of bulge stars is a key to investigate the origin, history, and classification of the…
We review observational evidence bearing on the formation of a prototypical large spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. New ground- and space-based studies of globular star clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies provide a wealth of information to…
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 three-dimensional hydrodynamical N-body model for the formation of the Galaxy is presented with special attention to the formation of the bulge component. Starting with cosmologically motivated initial conditions, we obtain a…
Observations of the nearby large galaxies that can be examined in particularly close detail suggest that many have small stellar luminosity fractions in bulges and haloes. Simulations of galaxy formation tend to produce considerably larger…
(Abridged) A robust analysis of galaxy structural parameters, based on the modeling of bulge and disk brightnesses in the BVRH bandpasses, is presented for 121 face-on and moderately inclined late-type spirals. Each surface brightness (SB)…
Properties of bars and bulges in the Hubble sequence are discussed, based on the analysis of 216 disk galaxies (S0s and spirals from NIRS0S and OSUBGS surveys, respectively). For that purpose we have collected together, and completed when…
In this paper, we try to understand why the classical bulge fraction observed in S0 galaxies is significantly higher than that in spiral galaxies. We carry out a comparative study of the bulge and global properties of a sample of spiral and…
In a diagram of metallicity (\~z) vs. luminosity (M$_B$), the different types of nearby (Z $< 0.05$) starburst galaxies seem to follow the same linear relationship as the normal spiral and irregular galaxies. However, for comparable…
We summarize current models of the formation of spheroidal stellar systems. Whereas globular clusters form in an efficient mode of star formation inside turbulent molecular clouds, the origin of galactic spheroids, that is bulges, dwarf…
This chapter reviews the three-dimensional structure, age, kinematics, and chemistry of the Milky Way (MW) region within ~2 kpc from its center (hereafter referred to as the 'bulge') from an observational perspective. While not exhaustive…
We review some of the models of chemical evolution of ellipticals and bulges of spirals. In particular, we focuse on the star formationn histories of ellipticals and their influence on chemical properties such as the [alpha/Fe] versus…
We present a sample of edge-on spiral galaxies both of early and late types.The sample consists of 175 galaxies in the Ks-filter, 169 galaxies in the H-filter and 165 galaxies in the J-filter. Bulge and disc decompositions of each galaxy…
We present first results of a comprehensive survey of deep long-slit spectra along the minor axis of bulges of edge-on spiral galaxies. Our results indicate that stellar populations in bulges are fairly old and encompass a range of…
Contrary to traditional models of galaxy formation, recent observations suggest that some bulges form within preexisting disk galaxies. Such late-epoch bulge formation within disks seems to be linked to disk gas inflow and central star…
We describe the history and results of our study of early-type disk galaxies with the Multi-Pupil Spectrograph of the 6m telescope (MPFS). With the new data we confirm the discovery of chemically distinct nuclei reported in 1992; now such…