Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Recent advances in the determination of some Galactic constants in the Milky Way

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Astrophysics and Space Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Here we statistically evaluate recent advances in determining the Sun-Galactic Center distance (\(R_{\mathit{sun}}\)) as well as recent measures of the orbital velocity around the Galactic Center (\(V_{\mathit{lsr}}\)), and the angular rotation parameters of various objects. Recent statistical results point to \(R_{\mathit{sun}} = 8.0 \pm 0.2~\mbox{kpc}\), \(V_{\mathit{lsr}}= 230 \pm 3~\mbox{km}/\mbox{s}\), and angular rotation at the Sun (\(\omega\)) near \(29 \pm 1~\mbox{km}/\mbox{s}/\mbox{kpc}\) for the gas and stars at the Local Standard of Rest, and near \(23 \pm 2~\mbox{km}/\mbox{s}/\mbox{kpc}\) for the spiral pattern itself.

This angular difference is similar to what had been predicted by density wave models, along with the observation that the galactic longitude of each spiral arm tracer (dust, cold CO) for each spiral arm becomes reversed across the Galactic Meridian (Vallée in Astrophys. J. 821:53, 2016b).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bajkova, A.T., Bobylev, V.V.: Astron. Nachr. 334, 851 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bajkova, A.T., Bobylev, V.V.: Balt. Astron. 24, 43 (2015)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Battinelli, P., Demers, S., Rossi, C., Gigoyan, K.S.: Astrophysics 56, 6875 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bissantz, N., Englmaier, P., Gerhard, O.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 340, 949 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bland-Hawthorn, J., Gerhard, O.: Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 54, 529 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bobylev, V.V.: Astron. Lett. 39, 95 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bobylev, V.V.: Astron. Lett. 43 (2017, in press). arXiv:1611.01766

  • Bobylev, V.V., Bajkova, A.T.: Astron. Lett. 39, 809 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bobylev, V.V., Bajkova, A.T.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 447, L50 (2015a)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bobylev, V.V., Bajkova, A.T.: Astron. Lett. 41, 473 (2015b)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bobylev, V.V., Bajkova, A.T.: Astron. Lett. 42, 90 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bobylev, V.V., Bajkova, A.T.: Astron. Lett. 43 (2017, in press). arXiv:1611.00794

  • Bobylev, V.V., Bajkova, T., Shirokova, K.S.: Astron. Lett. 42, 721 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Boehle, A., Ghez, A.M., Schodel, R., Meyer, L., Yelda, S., Albers, S., Martinez, G.D., Becklin, E., Do, T., Lu, J., Matthews, k., Morris, M., Sitarski, B., Witzel, G.: Astrophys. J. 830, 17 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bovy, J., Prieto, C.A., Beers, T.C., Bizyaev, D., Da Costa, L.N., Cunha, K., others, .: Astrophys. J. 759, 131 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Branham, R.L.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 353, 179 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Branham, R.L.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 359, 54 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Branham, R.L.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 362, 29 (2017)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Cao, L., Mao, S., Nataf, D., Rattenbury, N., Gould, A.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 434, 595 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Catchpole, R.M., Whitelock, P.A., Fast, M.W., Hughes, S.M., Irwin, M., Alard, C.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 455, 2216 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Chatzopoulos, S., Fritz, T.K., Gerhard, O., Gillessen, S., Wegg, C., Genzel, R., Pfuhl, O.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 447, 948 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Dambis, A.K., Berdnikov, L.N., Efremov, Y.N., Kniazev, A.Y., Rastorguev, A.S., Glushkova, E.V., Kravtsov, V.V., Turner, D.G., Majaess, D.J., Sefako, R.: Astron. Lett. 41, 489 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • De Grijs, R., Bono, G.: Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 227, 5 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Dékány, I., Minniti, D., Catelan, M., Zoccali, M., Saito, R.K., Hempel, M., Gonzalez, O.A.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 776, L19 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Do, T., Martinez, G.D., Yelda, S., Ghez, A., bullock, J., Kaplinghat, M., Lu, J.R., Peter, A.H., Phifer, K.: Astrophys. J. Lett. 779, L6 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Englmaier, P., Gerhard, O.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 304, 512 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Francis, C., Anderson, E.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 441, 1105 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gerhard, O.: Mem. Soc. Astron. Ital. 18, 185 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh, S., Jog, C.J.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 459, 4057 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Gillessen, S., Eisenhauer, F., Fritz, T.K., Pfuhl, O., Ott, T., Genzel, R.: Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances. Proc. IAU Symp., vol. 289, p. 29 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodges-Kluck, E.J., Miller, M.J., Bregman, J.: Astrophys. J. 822, 21 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Honma, M., Nagayama, T., Ando, K., Bushimata, T., Choi, Y.K., Handa, T., others, .: Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn. 64, 136 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Huang, Y., Liu, X.-W., Yuan, H.-B., Xiang, M.-S., Zhang, H.-W., Chen, B.-Q., Ren, J.J., Wang, C., Zhang, Y., Hou, Y.-H., Wang, Y.-F., Cao, Z.-H.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 463, 2623 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Junqueira, T.C., Chiappini, C., Lépine, J.R., Minchev, I., Santiago, B.X.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 449, 2336 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Koda, J., Scoville, N., Heyer, M.: Astrophys. J. 823, 76 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Kupper, A.H., Balbinot, E., Bonaca, A., Johnston, K., Hogg, D., Kroupa, P., Santiago, B.: Astrophys. J. 803, 80 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Z., Gerhard, O., Shen, J., Portail, M., Wegg, C.: Astrophys. J. 824, 13 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Malkin, Z.M.: Astron. Rep. 57, 128 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Matsunaga, M., Feast, M., Kawadu, T., Nishiyama, S., Nagayama, T., Nagata, T., others, .: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 429, 385 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • McGaugh, S.S.: Astrophys. J. 816, 42 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • McMillan, P.J.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 465, 76 (2017)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Melnik, A.M., Rautiainen, P., Glushkova, E.V., Dambis, A.K.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 361, a60 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Monari, G., Famaey, B., Siebert, A., Duchateau, A., Lorscheider, T., Bienaymé, O.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 465, 1443 (2017)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Morris, M.R., Meyer, L., Ghez, A.M.: Res. Astron. Astrophys. 12, 995 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Nagayama, T., Omodaka, T., Nakagawa, A., others, .: Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn. 63, 23 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Pietrukowicz, P., Kozlowski, S., Skowron, J., others, .: Astrophys. J. 811, 113 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Qin, Y., Shen, J., Li, Z.-Y., Mao, S., Smith, M.C., ich, R.M., Kunder, A., Liu, C.: Astrophys. J. 808, 75 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Rastorguev, A.S., Zabolotskikh, M.V., Dambis, A.K., Utkin, N.D., Bajkova, A.T., Bobylev, V.V.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. (2017, in press). arXiv:1603.09124

  • Reid, M.J., Dame, T.M.: Astrophys. J. 832, 159 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Reid, M.J., Menten, K.M., Brunthaler, A., Zheng, X.W., Dame, T.M., Xu, Y., Wu, Y., Zhang, B., Sanna, A., Sato, M., Hachisuka, K., Choi, Y.K., Immer, K., Moscadelli, L., Rygl, K.L., Bartkiewicz, A.: Astrophys. J. 783, 130 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Fernandez, N.J., Combes, F.: Astron. Astrophys. 489, 115 (2008)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Rojas-Ariagada, A., Recio-Blanco, A., de Laverny, P., Schultheis, M., Guiglion, G., et al.: Astron. Astrophys. 586, 39 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Schonrich, R.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 427, 274 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, S., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Binney, J., Freeman, K.C., Steinmetz, M., Boeche, C., others, .: Astrophys. J. 793, 51 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Vallée, J.P.: Astron. J. 151, 55 (2016a)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Vallée, J.P.: Astrophys. J. 821, 53 (2016b)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, Z., Shen, M.: Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances. Proc. IAU Symp., vol. 289, p. 444 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The figure production made use of the PGPLOT software at NRC Canada in Victoria. I thank an anonymous referee for useful, careful, and historical suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Council of Canada, National Science Infrastructure, Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, B.C., V9E 2E7, Canada

    Jacques P. Vallée

Authors
  1. Jacques P. Vallée
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jacques P. Vallée.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vallée, J.P. Recent advances in the determination of some Galactic constants in the Milky Way. Astrophys Space Sci 362, 79 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3058-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3058-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation