THE VVV SURVEY REVEALS CLASSICAL CEPHEIDS TRACING A YOUNG AND THIN STELLAR DISK ACROSS THE GALAXY’S BULGE

Journal Article · Tue Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/812/2/L29· OSTI ID:22518772

Dékány, I. ^[1]; Minniti, D. ^[2]; Majaess, D. ^[3]; Zoccali, M.; Hajdu, G.; Catelan, M. ^[4]; Alonso-García, J. ^[5]; Gieren, W. ^[6]

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1. Instituto Milenio de Astrofísica, Santiago (Chile)
2. Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Andres Bello, República 220, Santiago (Chile)
3. Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada)
4. Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago (Chile)
5. Unidad de Astronomía, Fac. Cs. Básicas, Universidad de Antofagasta, Avda. U. de Antofagasta 02800, Antofagasta (Chile)
6. Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción (Chile)

Solid insight into the physics of the inner Milky Way is key to understanding our Galaxy’s evolution, but extreme dust obscuration has historically hindered efforts to map the area along the Galactic mid-plane. New comprehensive near-infrared time-series photometry from the VVV Survey has revealed 35 classical Cepheids, tracing a previously unobserved component of the inner Galaxy, namely a ubiquitous inner thin disk of young stars along the Galactic mid-plane, traversing across the bulge. The discovered period (age) spread of these classical Cepheids implies a continuous supply of newly formed stars in the central region of the Galaxy over the last 100 million years.

• OSTI ID: 22518772
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 812, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CEPHEIDS
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
MILKY WAY
NEAR INFRARED RADIATION
PHOTOMETRY