The DOI matches its Crossref record; 580 of the 584 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Galaxy in Context: Structural, Kinematic, and Integrated Properties
Open accessAbstract
Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is a benchmark for understanding disk galaxies. It is the only galaxy whose formation history can be studied using the full distribution of stars from faint dwarfs to supergiants. The oldest components provide us with unique insight into how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years. The Galaxy is a luminous (L⋆) barred spiral with a central box/peanut bulge, a dominant disk, and a diffuse stellar halo. Based on global properties, it falls in the sparsely populated “green valley” region of the galaxy color-magnitude diagram. Here we review the key integrated, structural and kinematic parameters of the Galaxy, and point to uncertainties as well as directions for future progress. Galactic studies will continue to play a fundamental role far into the future because there are measurements that can only be made in the near field and much of contemporary astrophysics depends on such observations.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source doesn’t support the claim as written.
In the citing paper
“Before Gaia , these challenges meant that the MW virial mass was known only to within a factor of several-(0 . 53) × 10 12 M ⊙ (Bland-Hawthorn & Gerhard, 2016)-despite decades of effort.”
From The rotation curve of the Milky Way: State of the art, the Keplerian decline debate, and implications for dark matter (2026) · cites this paper as Bland-Hawthorn & Gerhard, 2016
Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Currently, the stellar disc mass of our galaxy is poorly constrained (e.g. see the compilation of stellar profiles in Iocco et al. 2015) and thus cannot be used to distinguish between the two models, although most measurements agree better with the lower stellar mass of the contracted NFW halo model”
From The milky way total mass profile as inferred from Gaia DR2 (2020) · cites this paper as Bland-Hawthorn & Gerhard 2016
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“The total baryonic mass of the MW is M bary ≈ (0 . 6-1 . 0) × 10 11 M ⊙ (Bland-Hawthorn & Gerhard, 2016).”
From The rotation curve of the Milky Way: State of the art, the Keplerian decline debate, and implications for dark matter (2026) · cites this paper as Bland-Hawthorn & Gerhard, 2016
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“The Milky Way is, in general terms, a fairly typical disk galaxy (Bland-Hawthorn & Gerhard 2016).”
From Streams, Substructures, and the Early History of the Milky Way (2020) · cites this paper as Bland-Hawthorn & Gerhard 2016
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)
Skrutskie, M. F., Cutri, R. M., Stiening, R., Weinberg, M. D., Schneider, S., Carpenter, J. M., Beichman, C., Capps, R., Chester, T., Elias, J., et al. (2006) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/498708 · Cited by 12,019
Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
Chabrier, G. (2003) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1086/376392 · Cited by 9,071
On the variation of the initial mass function
Kroupa, P. (2001) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04022.x · Cited by 7,499
Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies
Kormendy, J., & Ho, L. C. (2013) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-082708-101811 · Cited by 4,421
Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass FunctionPreprint
Chabrier, G. (2003) · Cited by 4,012
Statistical Properties of X‐Ray Clusters: Analytic and Numerical Comparisons
Bryan, G. L., & Norman, M. L. (1998) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/305262 · Cited by 2,372
A synthetic view on structure and evolution of the Milky Way
Robin, A. C., Reylé, C., Derrière, S., & Picaud, S. (2003) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20031117 · Cited by 2,040
Local kinematics and the local standard of rest
Schönrich, R. A., Binney, J. J., & Dehnen, W. (2010) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16253.x · Cited by 1,934
Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host GalaxiesPreprint
Kormendy, J., & Ho, L. C. (2013) · Cited by 1,881
MONITORING STELLAR ORBITS AROUND THE MASSIVE BLACK HOLE IN THE GALACTIC CENTER
Gillessen, S., Eisenhauer, F., Trippe, S., Alexander, T., Genzel, R., Martins, F., & Ott, T. (2009) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/692/2/1075 · Cited by 1,779
Research works printed but not linked: 37
- Árnadóttir AS, Feltzing S, Lundström I. 2009. In The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context, Proc. IAU Symp. Colloq. 254, ed.J Andersen, B Nordström, J Bland-Hawthorn, p. 5. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
- Bajkova AT, 2015, Baltic Astron., 24, 43
- Bienayme O, 1987, Astron. Astrophys., 180, 94
- Bottema R, 1993, Astron. Astrophys., 275, 16
- Burnett B, 2011, Astron. Astrophys., 113, 14
- Carraro G, 2015, Bull. Assoc. Argent. Astron., 57, 7
- Combes F, 1990, Astron. Astrophys., 233, 82
- Contopoulos G, 1980, Astron. Astrophys., 81, 198
- Edvardsson B, 1993, Astron. Astrophys., 275, 101
- Freeman K. 2001. In Galaxy Disks and Disk Galaxies , ed. JG Funes, EM Corsini. ASP Conf. Ser. 230:91. San Francisco: ASP
- Fuhrmann K, 1998, Astron. Astrophys., 330, 626
- Fux R, 1999, Astron. Astrophys., 345, 787
- Gerhard OE. 1999. In Galaxy Dynamics: A Rutgers Symposium , ed. DR Merritt, M Valluri, JA Sellwood. ASP Conf. Ser. 182:307. San Francisco: ASP
- Gilmore G, 2012, Messenger, 147, 25
- Gratton R, 2000, Astron. Astrophys., 358, 671
- Habing H, 1988, Astron. Astrophys., 200, 40
- Harris WE. 2010. arXiv:1012.3224 · arXiv
- Haywood M, 1997, Astron. Astrophys., 320, 428
- Kormendy J. 2013. In XXIII Canary Isl. Winter Sch. Astrophys. , ed. J. Falcon-Barroso, JH Knapen, p. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press
- Lindqvist M, 1992, Astron. Astrophys., 259, 118
- Majaess D, 2010, Acta Astron., 60, 55
- Malkin Z. 2013. In Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances, Proc. IAU Symp. 289 , ed. R de Grijs, 8:406–9. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press · DOI
- May J, 1993, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl., 99, 105
- Mendez RA, 1998, Astron. Astrophys., 330, 910
- Pandey AK, 1988, Astron. Astrophys., 189, 66
- Patterson FS, 1940, Harv. Coll. Obs. Bull., 914, 9
- Pfenniger D, 1991, Astron. Astrophys., 252, 75
- Quillen A, Garnett D. 2001. In Galaxy Disks and Disk Galaxies , ed. JG Funes, EM Corsini. ASP Conf. Ser. 230:87. San Francisco: ASP
- 10.1146/annurev.aa.31.090193.002021 · DOI
- Ruphy S, 1996, Astron. Astrophys., 313, L21
- Saha K, 2012, MNRAS, 421, 333
- Udalski A, 2008, Acta Astron., 58, 69
- van der Kruit P, 1986, Astron. Astrophys., 157, 230
- van Tulder JJM, 1942, Bull. Astron. Inst. Neth., 9, 315
- Wetzel AR, Hopkins PF, Kim JH, et al. 2016. arXiv:1602.05957 · arXiv
- Wielen R, 1977, Astron. Astrophys., 60, 263
- Zhu Z, Shen M. 2013. In Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances, Proc. IAU Symp. 289 , ed. R de Grijs, 8:444–47. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Prusti, T., de Bruijne, J. H. J., Brown, A. G. A., Vallenari, A., Babusiaux, C., Bailer‐Jones, C. A. L., Bastian, U., Biermann, M., Evans, D. W., Eyer, L., et al. (2016) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201629272 · Cited by 7,350
Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
Abbott, B. P., Abbott, R., Abbott, T. D., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., Adams, T., Addesso, P., Adhikari, R. X., Adya, V. B., et al. (2017) · The Astrophysical Journal Letters · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa920c · Cited by 3,816
The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)
Majewski, S. R., Schiavon, R. P., Frinchaboy, P. M., Prieto, C. A., Barkhouser, R., Bizyaev, D., Blank, B., Brunner, S., Burton, A., Carrera, R., et al. (2017) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa784d · Cited by 1,831
Small-Scale Challenges to the Λ CDM Paradigm
Bullock, J. S., & Boylan-Kolchin, M. (2017) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-091916-055313 · Cited by 1,741
Tumlinson, J., Peeples, M. S., & Werk, J. K. (2017) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-091916-055240 · Cited by 1,147
Metadata
- Authors
- Bland-Hawthorn, J., & Gerhard, O.
- Affiliations
- 1Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; email: jbh@physics.usyd.edu.au
- Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Gerhard, Ortwin
- ORCID
- Gerhard, Ortwin
- Venue
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2016-09-19
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 529-596
- ISSN
- 0066-4146 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-4282
- OpenAlex
- W2216753448
- Cited by
- 1,656
- References
- 584
- Citations by year
- 2026: 119 · 2025: 187 · 2024: 181 · 2023: 168 · 2022: 140 · 2021: 162 · 2020: 203 · 2019: 194 · 2018: 160 · 2017: 109 · 2016: 31
- FWCI
- 11.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
- Keywords
- Milky Way, disk galaxies, galaxy structure, galactic kinematics, stellar halo, barred spiral galaxies, green valley, galaxy formation and evolution, stellar populations
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
