| Issue |
A&A
Volume 587, March 2016
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | A140 | |
| Number of page(s) | 7 | |
| Section | Galactic structure, stellar clusters and populations | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201526083 | |
| Published online | 03 March 2016 | |
Orbits of maser stars in the rotating Galactic bar
Sterrewacht Leiden, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
Received: 12 March 2015
Accepted: 12 November 2015
Maser stars have been found with radial velocities up to +350 km s-1 and down to −350 km s-1 and exclusively within a few degrees from the Galactic centre. They form two spatially separated streams: one stream is at positive longitudes and consists of stars going away from us and the other is at negative longitudes consisting of stars approaching us. I show that closed orbits in a simple mass model for the bar explain quantitatively the existence of the two streams and the velocities observed. The mass of the bar is estimated on dynamical grounds: 3 × 1010 Msun.
Key words: Galaxy: bulge / Galaxy: center / Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics
© ESO, 2016
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