Different studies of the global pitch angle of the Milky Way's spiral arms

2015/05/05 by J. P. Vallée, Jacques P Vallee · 50 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxy #Mathematical analysis #Milky Way #Physics #Pitch angle #Range (aeronautics) #Spiral (railway) #Spiral galaxy #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stv862

published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 450(4), 4277-4284 (Oxford University Press) · 18 pages; 2 figures, 7 tables, 1 appendix; accepted on 2015 April 14, by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (in press)

arxiv created 2015/05/05 · openalex publication_date 2015/05/21 · arxiv updated 2015/08/26 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

There are many published values for the pitch angle of individual spiral arms, and their wide distribution (from −3° to −28°) begs for various attempts for a single value. Each of four statistical methods used here yields a mean pitch angle in a small range, between −12° and −14° (Table 7, Fig. 2). The final result of our meta-analysis yields a mean global pitch angle in the Milky Way's spiral arms of −13.1° ± 0.6°.

Citations

• Structure and Dynamics of the Milky Way: The Evolving Picture
• Age, size, and position of H ii regions in the Galaxy
• Outer Rotation Curve of the Galaxy with VERA I: Trigonometric Parallax of IRAS 05168+3634
• CATALOG OF OBSERVED TANGENTS TO THE SPIRAL ARMS IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY
• TRIGONOMETRIC PARALLAXES OF MASSIVE STAR-FORMING REGIONS. VI. GALACTIC STRUCTURE, FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS, AND NONCIRCULAR MOTIONS
• THE MILKY WAY PROJECT: LEVERAGING CITIZEN SCIENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING TO DETECT INTERSTELLAR BUBBLES

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