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Large‐scale distribution of interstellar matter in the central region of our Galaxy
Author(s) -
Ferrière K.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200811054
Subject(s) - physics , galaxy , astrophysics , interstellar medium , gravitational potential , astronomy , galactic center , mass distribution , gravitation
In this paper, we review the present observational knowledge on the physical properties and the large‐scale spatial distribution of interstellar matter in the central region of our Galaxy, out to a distance of 3 kpc from the Galactic center. We mainly focus on the interstellar gas, which contains ∼98 % of the total interstellar mass, leaving the remaining ∼2 % to interstellar dust. In a second step, we present a global model of the interstellar gas distribution, which incorporates the relevant results of a vast number of observational studies as well as those of numerical simulations of gas flows in the gravitational potential of a barred galaxy. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)