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The Milky Way: - Center, Shape - Globular Cluster System - Galactic Coordinates - Size of The Milky Way
The Milky Way: - Center, Shape - Globular Cluster System - Galactic Coordinates - Size of The Milky Way
• Center, Shape
• Globular cluster system
• Galactic coordinates
• Size of the Milky Way
Milky Way from Iowa
Milky Way from Australia
Milky Way from Australia
How do we locate the center of
the Milky Way?
1. Halo
2. Disk
3. Central 1 kpc
4. Bulge
5. Disk and Bulge
Size of the Milky Way
1. 800 pc
2. 8 kpc
3. 8,000 kpc
4. 8 Mpc
5. Variable, between 1 and 10 kpc
Mass of the Galaxy
a
M1 2
1.8 10
3
1 1011
9 3
P 2.3 10
8 2
GM (r )
v
r
Rotation curves
Rotation curve of the Milky Way
Rotation curve of Milky Way
Mass of the Milky Way
density R-2
Dark Matter
• Dark – it doesn’t produce light (any kind)
• Does have mass, produces gravity
• Nature is unknown
• Might be normal matter in a form that
doesn’t emit much light – very small and
dim star, little black holes
• More likely it is elementary particles other
than normal matter
What properties of the sun could be
used to measure the total mass
enclosed within the sun's orbit?
To do this yourself,
read 19.5-19.6
21 map of spiral arms
Tracers of spiral arms
1. A concentration of
dark matter inside
2 kpc
2. A spherical
distribution of
dark matter
3. Dark matter only
outside 2 kpc
4. Uniformly
distributed dark
matter in the disk
5. No dark matter is
needed to explain
this plot
The Galactic Center
• Center is
the red
ellipse at
the center
• Called
Sgr A*
Infrared image,
central 3 ly
• Sgr A* does not
appear.
• There are about
1,000,000 stars
in the area
covered by this
image.
• Stars are only
1000 AU apart.
Stellar Orbits in the Galactic Center
Mass of Sgr A* can be measured
using stellar orbits
• Fastest moving star moves at 2% of the
speed of light, 5000 km/s
• Mass is about 3 million solar masses
• Emits radio and X-rays
• Almost certainly a black hole
X-ray image,
central 3 ly
Sgr A* is the
bright object in
the center of
the image.
Makes flares
in X-rays.
Movie.
The best estimate of the mass of the black
hole at the galactic center was made using: