Will the Smooth Stellar Spheroid Please Stand Up?
Heidi Newberg, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Abstract:
Stellar photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has revealed previously unforseen substructure in the stellar spheroid of the Milky Way: enormous tidal streams from known and from unidentified progenitor, lumps of unknown origin, hints of triaxiality, along with new dwarf galaxies and star clusters. I will outline the new techniques that are being used to identify density substructure statistically, without precise information about the spacial position of each star. We are just beginning to tap the potential of velocity information for large numbers of Galactic stars, which will eventually allow us to piece together the merger history of our Galaxy, and may allow us to trace the dark matter potential. We currently get our velocity information from Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) data, and we are exploring the possibility of future collaborations with the Chinese LAMOST project.