Related papers: Clockwise Stellar Disk and the Dark Mass in the Ga…

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,…

This paper has been withdrawn temporarily by the authors. As stars close to the galactic centre have short orbital periods it has been possible to trace large fractions of their orbits in the recent years. Previously the data of the orbit…

We report the discovery of a probable new globular cluster in the disk of the Milky Way. Visible in 2MASS and the GLIMPSE survey, it has an estimated foreground extinction of A_V ~ 24 mag. The absolute magnitude of the cluster and the…

After correcting spherical aberration in the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, the central masses of galaxies can be measured with a resolution 5 to 10 times better than can be achieved at the best terrestrial sites. This improvement in…

Massive satellite accretions onto early galactic disks can lead to the deposition of dark matter in disk-like configurations that co-rotate with the galaxy. This phenomenon has potentially dramatic consequences for dark matter detection…

We investigate the correlations among stellar mass (M_*), disk scale length (R_d), and rotation velocity at 2.2 disk scale lengths (V_2.2) for a sample of 81 disk-dominated galaxies (disk/total >= 0.9) selected from the SDSS. We measure…

The Galactic centre hosts, according to observations, a number of early-type stars. About one half of those which are orbiting the central supermassive black hole on orbits with projected radii $\gtrsim$ 0.03 pc form a coherently rotating…

This article summarizes recent work on the luminosity and mass distribution of the Galactic bulge and disk, and on the mass of the Milky Way's dark halo. A new luminosity model consistent with the COBE NIR data and the apparent magnitude…

We used red clump stars to measure the surface mass density of the Galactic disk in the solar neighbourhood. High resolution spectra of red clump stars towards the NGP have been obtained with the ELODIE spectrograph at OHP for Tycho-2…

Average stellar orbits of the Galactic disk may have some small intrinsic ellipticity which breaks the exact axisymmetry and there may also be some migration of stars inwards or outwards. Both phenomena can be detected through kinematic…

We discuss experiments achievable via monitoring of stellar dynamics near the massive black hole at the Galactic center with a next generation, extremely large telescope (ELT). Given the likely observational capabilities of an ELT and…

The discovery of hundreds of young, bright stars within a parsec from the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy presents a challenge to star formation theories. The requisite Roche densities for the gravitational collapse of gas…

This article summarizes the structural parameters of the Galactic bulge and disk, and discusses the interpretation of the bulge microlensing observations and the determination of the Milky Way's luminous mass from the terminal velocity…

We estimated the dynamical surface mass density (Sigma) at the solar Galactocentric distance between 2 and 4 kpc from the Galactic plane, as inferred from the observed kinematics of the thick disk. We find Sigma(z=2 kpc)=57.6+-5.8 Mo pc^-2,…

We show that with a Next Generation Large Telescope one can detect the accelerated motions of ~100 stars orbiting the massive black hole at the Galactic center. The positions and velocities of these stars will be measured to astrometric and…

The radial distribution of mass in a disk galaxy is strongly constrained by its rotation curve. The separate contributions from the individual stellar populations and dark matter (DM) are not easily disentangled, however, especially since…

During the last $\sim$ 30 Myr the nuclear stellar disk in the Galactic center has been the most prolific star forming region of the Milky Way when averaged by volume. Remarkably, the combined mass of the only three clusters present today in…

Using 25 years of data from uninterrupted monitoring of stellar orbits in the Galactic Center, we present an update of the main results from this unique data set: A measurement of mass of and distance to SgrA*. Our progress is not only due…

We compile a sample of dispersion-supported and rotation-supported galaxies for which the dynamical mass enclosed at 500 pc can be measured. We find that this dynamical quantity increases only slowly with stellar mass (M$_{total}$(<500pc)…

With the advent of adaptive optics on the W. M. Keck 10 m telescope, two significant steps forward have been taken in building the case for a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way and understanding the black hole's effect…