English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

We introduce a new maximum‐likelihood method to model the density profile of blue horizontal branch and blue straggler stars and apply it to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8 photometric catalogue. There are a large number (∼20 000) of these tracers available over an impressive 14 000 deg 2  in both Northern and Southern Galactic hemispheres, and they provide a robust measurement of the shape of the Milky Way stellar halo. After masking out stars in the vicinity of the Virgo overdensity and the Sagittarius stream, the data are consistent with a smooth, oblate stellar halo with a density that follows a broken power law. The best‐fitting model has an inner slope α in ∼ 2.3 and an outer slope α out ∼ 4.6, together with a break radius occurring at ∼27 kpc and a constant halo flattening (i.e. ratio of minor axis to major axis) of  q ∼ 0.6. Although a broken power law describes the density fall‐off most adequately, it is also well fitted by an Einasto profile. There is no strong evidence for variations in flattening with radius, or for triaxiality of the stellar halo.

The Milky Way stellar halo out to 40 kpc: squashed, broken but smooth