Spiral Structure of the Outer Milky Way in Hydrogen

We produce a detailed map of the perturbed surface density of neutral hydrogen in the outer Milky Way disk, demonstrating that the Galaxy is a non-axisymmetric multiarmed spiral. Spiral structure in the southern half of the Galaxy can be traced out to at least 25 kiloparsecs, implying a minimum radi...

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Veröffentlicht in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2006-06, Vol.312 (5781), p.1773-1777
Hauptverfasser: Levine, E.S, Blitz, Leo, Heiles, Carl
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:We produce a detailed map of the perturbed surface density of neutral hydrogen in the outer Milky Way disk, demonstrating that the Galaxy is a non-axisymmetric multiarmed spiral. Spiral structure in the southern half of the Galaxy can be traced out to at least 25 kiloparsecs, implying a minimum radius for the gas disk. Overdensities in the surface density are coincident with regions of reduced gas thickness. The ratio of the surface density to the local median surface density is relatively constant along an arm. Logarithmic spirals can be fit to the arms with pitch angles of 20° to 25°.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1128455