The spiral structure of the Milky Way

Abstract

The morphology and kinematics of the spiral structure of the Milky Way is a long-standing problem in astrophysics. In this review we firstly summarize various methods with different tracers used to solve this puzzle. The astrometry of Galactic sources is gradually alleviating this difficult situation caused mainly by large distance uncertainties, as we can currently obtain accurate parallaxes (a few \(\mu\)as) and proper motions (\(\approx\) 1 km~s\(^{-1}\)) by using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). On the other hand, Gaia mission is providing the largest, uniform sample of parallaxes for O-type stars in the entire Milky Way. Based upon the VLBI maser and Gaia O-star parallax measurements, nearby spiral structures: the Perseus, Local, Sagittarius and Scutum arms are determined in unprecedented detail. Meanwhile, we estimate fundamental Galactic parameters, the distance to the Galactic center, \(R_0\), to be 8.35 \(\pm\) 0.18 kpc, a circular rotation speed at the Sun, \(\Theta_0\), to be 240 \(\pm\) 10 km~s\(^{-1}\). We found kinematic differences between O stars and interstellar masers: the O stars, on average, rotate faster, \(>\)~8~ km~s\(^{-1}\) than maser-traced high-mass star forming regions.