The Milky Way and Other Spiral Galaxies

Author(s):  
Francesca Matteucci
Keyword(s):  
2004 ◽  
Vol 614 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Burstein ◽  
Yong Li ◽  
Kenneth C. Freeman ◽  
John E. Norris ◽  
Michael S. Bessell ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S317) ◽  
pp. 344-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Richer ◽  
Marshall L. McCall

AbstractThe populations of bright planetary nebulae in the discs of spirals appear to differ in their spectral properties from those in ellipticals and the bulges of spirals. The bright planetary nebulae from the bulge of the Milky Way are entirely compatible with those observed in the discs of spiral galaxies. The similarity might be explained if the bulge of the Milky Way evolved secularly from the disc, in which case the bulge should be regarded as a pseudo-bulge.


2021 ◽  
Vol 921 (2) ◽  
pp. L42
Author(s):  
V. S. Veena ◽  
P. Schilke ◽  
Á. Sánchez-Monge ◽  
M. C. Sormani ◽  
R. S. Klessen ◽  
...  

Abstract We report the discovery of a velocity coherent, kiloparsec-scale molecular structure toward the Galactic center region with an angular extent of 30° and an aspect ratio of 60:1. The kinematic distance of the CO structure ranges between 4.4 and 6.5 kpc. Analysis of the velocity data and comparison with the existing spiral arm models support that a major portion of this structure is either a subbranch of the Norma arm or an interarm giant molecular filament, likely to be a kiloparsec-scale feather (or spur) of the Milky Way, similar to those observed in nearby spiral galaxies. The filamentary cloud is at least 2.0 kpc in extent, considering the uncertainties in the kinematic distances, and it could be as long as 4 kpc. The vertical distribution of this highly elongated structure reveals a pattern similar to that of a sinusoidal wave. The exact mechanisms responsible for the origin of such a kiloparsec-scale filament and its wavy morphology remains unclear. The distinct wave-like shape and its peculiar orientation makes this cloud, named as the Gangotri wave, one of the largest and most intriguing structures identified in the Milky Way.


Author(s):  
Jim Henry ◽  
Mesut Yurukcu ◽  
George Nnanna

Universe created with the fundamental laws of science. Nature is lazy and needs to form with the least possible to be perfect. A natural pattern, such as pinecones, sunflowers, pineapples, and cacti, has a double spiral structure. Once we look at these plants' centers, we will see the seeds line up in spirals shape. The number of spirals whirling in each direction will give us the Fibonacci numbers. We can give more examples representing these natural patterns; however, one example is unique and remarkable. The similarities between spiral galaxies- Milky Way and hurricanes. Are they similar in every property or just in shape and rotational movements? What are the similarities between them? This short review article will try to find these questions' answers by reviewing some literature articles. The first part of this article gave some information about hurricanes and galaxies. The second of this article focused on the comparison between hurricanes and galaxies. Finally, we will conclude the article with our remarks.


2020 ◽  
Vol 634 ◽  
pp. A33
Author(s):  
Leire Beitia-Antero ◽  
Ana Inés Gómez de Castro ◽  
Raúl de la Fuente Marcos

Context. Deep GALEX UV data show that the extreme outskirts of some spiral galaxies are teeming with star formation. Such young stellar populations evolving so far away from the bulk of their host galaxies challenge our overall understanding of how star formation proceeds at galactic scales. It is at present unclear whether our own Milky Way may also exhibit ongoing and recent star formation beyond the conventional edge of the disk (∼15 kpc). Aims. Using Gaia DR2 data, we aim to determine if such a population is present in the Galactic halo, beyond the nominal radius of the Milky Way disk. Methods. We studied the kinematics of Gaia DR2 sources with parallax values between 1/60 and 1/30 milliarcseconds towards two regions that show abnormally high values of extinction and reddening; the results are compared with predictions from GALAXIA Galactic model. We also plotted the color–magnitude (CM) diagrams with heliocentric distances computed inverting the parallaxes, and studied the effects of the large parallax errors by Monte Carlo sampling. Results. The kinematics point towards a Galactic origin for one of the regions, while the provenance of the stars in the other is not clear. A spectroscopic analysis of some of the sources in the first region confirms that they are located in the halo. The CM diagram of the sources suggests that some of them are young.


2020 ◽  
Vol 635 ◽  
pp. A166
Author(s):  
S. J. Curran

By including the most recent observations of H I 21-cm absorption through nearby galactic discs, we confirm our previous assertion that there is an anti-correlation between the abundance of cool neutral atomic gas and impact parameter. In comparing the measured neutral hydrogen column densities of the sample with the absorption strength, we find a peak in the mean spin temperature of ⟨Tspin/f ⟩ ≈ 2310 K at an impact parameter of ρ ≈ 14 kpc, with ⟨Tspin/f ⟩≳1000 K in the remainder of the disc. This is significantly different to the spin temperature distribution in the Milky Way, which exhibits a constant ≈250 − 400 K over ρ = 8 − 25 kpc. The measured column densities may, however, suffer from beam dilution, which we show appears to be the case for the observations of H I 21-cm emission in which the beam subtends radii of ≳10 kpc. We therefore applied the column density profile of the Milky Way, in addition to the mean of the sample, observed at sufficiently high resolution, and the mean profile for the nearby ∼1012 M⊙ galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations. All of the models yield a peak in the mean spin temperature at similar impact parameters (r ≈ 10 − 15 kpc) as the measured column densities. These radii are similar to those of the spiral arms where H II regions are often concentrated. We therefore suggest that the elevated spin temperatures trace the H II regions observed in the outer disc of many spiral galaxies.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 313-313
Author(s):  
J. Yin ◽  
J.L. Hou ◽  
R.X. Chang ◽  
S. Boissier ◽  
N. Prantzos

Andromeda galaxy (M31,NGC224) is the biggest spiral in the Local Group. By studying the star formation history(SFH) and chemical evolution of M31, and comparing with the Milky Way Galaxy, we are able to understand more about the formation and evolution of spiral galaxies.


Author(s):  
Charles Francis ◽  
Erik Anderson

We describe the structure and composition of six major stellar streams in a population of 20 574 local stars in the New Hipparcos Reduction with known radial velocities. We find that, once fast moving stars are excluded, almost all stars belong to one of these streams. The results of our investigation have led us to re-examine the hydrogen maps of the Milky Way, from which we identify the possibility of a symmetric two-armed spiral with half the conventionally accepted pitch angle. We describe a model of spiral arm motions that matches the observed velocities and compositions of the six major streams, as well as the observed velocities of the Hyades and Praesepe clusters at the extreme of the Hyades stream. We model stellar orbits as perturbed ellipses aligned at a focus in coordinates rotating at the rate of precession of apocentre. Stars join a spiral arm just before apocentre, follow the arm for more than half an orbit, and leave the arm soon after pericentre. Spiral pattern speed equals the mean rate of precession of apocentre. Spiral arms are shown to be stable configurations of stellar orbits, up to the formation of a bar and/or ring. Pitch angle is directly related to the distribution of orbital eccentricities in a given spiral galaxy. We show how spiral galaxies can evolve to form bars and rings. We show that orbits of gas clouds are stable only in bisymmetric spirals. We conclude that spiral galaxies evolve toward grand design two-armed spirals. We infer from the velocity distributions that the Milky Way evolved into this form about 9 billion years ago (Ga).


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S294) ◽  
pp. 213-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
JinLin Han

AbstractMagnetic fields in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies have been revealed by starlight polarization, polarized emission from dust grains and clouds at millimeter and submillimeter wavelength, the Zeeman effect of spectral lines or maser lines from clouds or clumps, diffuse radio synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in interstellar magnetic fields, and the Faraday rotation of background radio sources as well as pulsars for our Milky Way. It is easy to get a global structure for magnetic fields in nearby galaxies, while we have observed many details of magnetic fields in our Milky Way, especially by using pulsar rotation measure data. In general, magnetic fields in spiral galaxies probably have a large-scale structure. The fields follow the spiral arms with or without the field direction reversals. In the halo of spiral galaxies magnetic fields exist and probably also have a large-scale structure as toroidal and poloidal fields, but seem to be slightly weaker than those in the disk. In the central region of some galaxies, poloidal fields have been detected as vertical components. Magnetic field directions in galaxies seem to have been preserved during cloud formation and star formation, from large-scale diffuse interstellar medium to molecular clouds and then to the cloud cores in star formation regions or clumps for the maser spots. Magnetic fields in galaxies are passive to dynamics.


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