Spiral arm crossings inferred from ridges in Gaia stellar velocity distributions

The solar neighbourhood contains disc stars that have recently crossed spiral arms in the Galaxy. We propose that boundaries in local velocity distributions separate stars that have recently crossed and been more strongly perturbed by a particular arm from those that haven't. Ridges in the stel...

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Published inMonthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 480; no. 3; pp. 3132 - 3139
Main Authors Quillen, Alice C, Carrillo, Ismael, Anders, Friedrich, McMillan, Paul, Hilmi, Tariq, Monari, Giacomo, Minchev, Ivan, Chiappini, Cristina, Khalatyan, Arman, Steinmetz, Matthias
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.11.2018
Subjects
Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Fysik
Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics
Natural Sciences
Naturvetenskap
Physical Sciences
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Summary:The solar neighbourhood contains disc stars that have recently crossed spiral arms in the Galaxy. We propose that boundaries in local velocity distributions separate stars that have recently crossed and been more strongly perturbed by a particular arm from those that haven't. Ridges in the stellar velocity distributions constructed from the second Gaia data release trace orbits that could have touched nearby spiral arms at apocentre or pericentre. The multiple ridges and arcs seen in local velocity distributions are consistent with the presence of multiple spiral features and different pattern speeds and imply that the outer Galaxy is flocculent rather than grand design.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/sty2077