11:00 am–12:00 pm ERC 401
Title: What sets the vertical structure of the Milky Way disk?
Abstract: The stellar body of disk galaxies show a wide variety in their structures: from warped disks to flares to differences between the gaseous and the stellar body. What processes determine the vertical structure of these disk with such a wide variety? For external galaxies, where much of the information comes in an integrated form, disentangling between processes at play can be challenging. With the ongoing explosion of data for our own galaxy from large scale spectroscopic and astrometric surveys, we have never seen the Milky Way in such great detail: we can now `see’ dynamics in action as our disk is shaping itself, thanks to the availability of 6D phase-space information for millions of stars. In particular, the recently discovered phase spiral in the vertical motion (the Gaia Snail) carries evidence for vertical phase mixing, departure from dynamical equilibrium, and may shield light on the processes setting the vertical structure of the Milky Way’s disk. I will introduce the Gaia Snail, the Iron Snail, and present different approaches that we can use to understand our Galaxy’s history.
Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/96477534182?pwd=ypU41Y4kOxRWO3cSRImezBYtv75UGH.1
