Abstract
Gas in the Milky Way is driven inwards by its bar, some of it settling into a
disk extending to Galactocentric radius \$1.4 \kpc\$. The stellar
distribution in this region has not been well understood because of stellar
crowding and high extinction. Here we use a high resolution simulation of a
barred galaxy, which crucially includes gas and star formation, to guide our
interpretation of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment
(APOGEE) stellar velocity data for the inner Milky Way. We show that the data
favor the presence of a thin, rapidly-rotating, nuclear disk extending to \$\sim
1 \kpc\$. This is the first detection of a nuclear stellar disk in the Milky
Way.
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