The spiral structure of the outer Milky Way in hydrogen.
We produce a detailed map of the perturbed surface density of neutral hydrogen in the outer Milky Way disk, demonstrating that the Galaxy is a non-axisymmetric multiarmed spiral. Spiral structure in the southern half of the Galaxy can be traced out to at least 25 kiloparsecs, implying a minimum radius for the gas disk. Overdensities in the surface density are coincident with regions of reduced gas thickness. The ratio of the surface density to the local median surface density is relatively constant along an arm. Logarithmic spirals can be fit to the arms with pitch angles of 20 degrees to 25 degrees .
Levine
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ES
Astronomy Department, University of California, 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. elevine@astron.berkeley.edu
Blitz
Leo
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Heiles
Carl
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