The Galactic Bar [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1408.0219


The Milky Way’s bar dominates the orbits of stars and the flow of cold gas in the inner Galaxy, and is therefore of major importance for Milky Way dynamical studies in the Gaia era. Here we discuss the pronounced peanut shape of the Galactic bulge that has resulted from recent star count analysis, in particular from the VVV survey. We also discuss the question whether the Milky Way has an inner disky pseudo-bulge, and show preliminary evidence for a continuous transition in vertical scale-height from the peanut bulge-bar to the planar long bar.

Read this paper on arXiv…

O. Gerhard and C. Wegg
Mon, 4 Aug 14
18/40

Comments: Invited talk, 10pp, 4 figures. To be published in “Lessons from the Local Group – a conference in honour of David Block and Bruce Elmegreen”, May 2014, eds. Freeman, K.C., Elmegreen, B.G., Block, D.L. and Woolway, M. (SPRINGER: NEW YORK)