2006/01/01 by Gilberto C. Gómez, Gilberto C. Gomez
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Classical mechanics #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Galaxy rotation curve #Geometry #Kinematics #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Milky Way #Physics #Rotation (mathematics) #Scale (ratio) #Spiral (railway) #Spiral galaxy #Spurious relationship #Statistics #Stellar kinematics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/508412
published as Astron.J.132:2376-2382,2006 · Accepted for publication in AJ
openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · arxiv created 2006/08/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
Errors in the kinematic distances, under the assumption of circular gas orbits, were estimated by performing synthetic observations of a model disk galaxy. It was found that the error is <0.5 kpc for most of the disk when the measured rotation curve is used, but larger if the real rotation curve is applied. In both cases, the error is significantly larger at the positions of the spiral arms. The error structure is such that, when kinematic distances are used to develop a picture of the large-scale density distribution, the most significant features of the numerical model are significantly distorted or absent, while spurious structure appears. By considering the full velocity field in the calculation of the kinematic distances, most of the original density structures can be recovered.