Figure rotation and the mass of the galactic bulge
- 1 May 1995
- journal article
- Published by American Astronomical Society in The Astrophysical Journal
- Vol. 444, L89-L91
- https://doi.org/10.1086/187867
Abstract
The mass of the Galactic bulge, M_B, is estimated from the tensor virial theorem. By including the effects of a barred stellar distribution and figure rotation (81 \kms kpc ^{-1}) and by assuming that the bar is oriented at \theta = 20\deg \ to our line of sight, M_B is found to be as high as 2.8\times10^{10} M_{\odot}. This estimate is in good agreement with the total mass inferred from the observed optical depth to microlensing for stars toward the inner Galaxy. For larger angles, \theta \sim 40\deg, or smaller pattern speeds (20 \kms kpc ^{-1}), M_B is found to be \sim 1.7 - 1.9\times10^{10} M_{\odot}, similar to previous estimates for a barred bulge (2\times10^{10} M_{\odot}) and axisymmetric bulge (1.8\times10^{10} M_{\odot})Keywords
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