Galactic structure from the Spacelab infrared telescope. II - Luminosity models of the Milky Way
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Abstract
A 2.4-micron map of the northern Galactic plan is used to determine the 3D luminosity distribution of the Milky Way. The radial surface brightness profile of the disk is found to have an exponential scale length of 3.0 kpc. In the solar neighborhood, the scale height is about 247 pc, which is in agreement with star counts perpendicular to the Galactic plane. The scale height is not constant with the radius but decreases to about 165 pc. To the first order, the bulge can be represented by an oblate spheroid with an axis ratio of 0.61. The 2.2-micron/12-micron flux ratio for the bulge is typical of other dust-free spheroidal systems. Luminosity fluctuations along the Galactic plane are found to be caused chiefly by variations in the line-of-sight extinction.