Kinematic modeling of the Galaxy. I. The Yale Bright Star Catalogue

Journal Article · Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1989 · Astrophys. J.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/167281· OSTI ID:5856099

Ratnatunga, K U; Bahcall, J N; Casertano, S

A code has been developed to investigate the kinematic properties of stellar populations of the Galaxy by modeling the distributions of proper motion and line-of-sight velocity. The coordinate frames of reference are discussed in detail and the general matrix transformations valid beyond the solar neighborhood are given. As a first application, the kinematic properties of the magnitude-selected sample of 3993 stars in the Bright Star Catalogue with V less than 6.0 and (B-V) greater than 0 are selected. The observed kinematic distributions are compared with a conventional model that has an exponential disk with scale heights, components of velocity dispersion ellipsoid, and asymmetric drift taken from the literature and defined as functions of spectral type. The comparisons suggest that a significant fraction of the Bright Star Catalogue belongs to a relatively young population that is not properly represented in the model. 55 refs.

• Research Organization: Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Penticton (Canada); Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (USA); Groningen, Rijksuniversiteit (Netherlands)
• OSTI ID: 5856099
• Journal Information: Astrophys. J.; (United States), Vol. 339
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
MILKY WAY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COORDINATES
GIANT STARS
LUMINOSITY
MONTE CARLO METHOD
MOTION
PARTICLE KINEMATICS
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION
GALAXIES
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STARS
640105* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Galaxies