Archive for the ‘Galaxy’ Category

About our Galaxy

Tuesday, November 1st, 2005

Basic facts:

  • In the center of the Milky Way there seems to be a black hole, with a mass about
    : M~106Msun

  • In pacsecs (pc = 3.26 lightyear, kpc=1000pc) the central bulge is a few kpc in radius,
    and the disk is at least 15kpc, the Sun is about 8 kpc from the center.

  • The density n of stars in the disk is given by a scale length hR and R
    the distance from the center is given by: n(R)∝ e-R/hR hR is
    in the range of 2-4 kpc

  • The thin disk (as opposed to the thick disk, which is a more defuse disk wider then
    the one we normally “see”, contains 95% of the disk stars.

  • The Galaxy is rotation, stars in the disk orbit the center at about 200km s-1,
    it takes the Sun about 250 Myr to orbit the entire galaxy.

  • The total luminosity of the disk is about 15-20×109Lsun and
    the mass is around 60 x 109 Msun. The Bulge L ≈ 5 x 109 Lsun and
    a mass around 20  x 109 Msun