Gaia Data Release 3: Mapping the asymmetric disc of the Milky Way
Gaia Collaboration: R. Drimmel, M. Romero-Gomez, L. Chemin, P. Ramos,, E. Poggio, V. Ripepi, R. Andrae, R. Blomme, T. Cantat-Gaudin, A., Castro-Ginard, G. Clementini, F. Figueras, M. Fouesneau, Y. Fremat, K., Jardine, S. Khanna, A. Lobel, D. J. Marshall, T. Muraveva

TL;DR
This paper utilizes Gaia DR3 data to map the Milky Way's asymmetric disc, revealing detailed spiral structures, the bar's kinematic signature, and streaming motions, significantly advancing our understanding of Galactic morphology and dynamics.
Contribution
It provides the first comprehensive mapping of the Milky Way's non-axisymmetric features using Gaia DR3 stellar populations and velocities, highlighting new structural and kinematic insights.
Findings
Mapping of spiral arms extending up to 10 kpc from the Sun.
Detection of the Galactic bar's kinematic signature in RGB stars.
Identification of streaming motions possibly linked to spiral arms or bar resonances.
Abstract
With the most recent Gaia data release the number of sources with complete 6D phase space information (position and velocity) has increased to well over 33 million stars, while stellar astrophysical parameters are provided for more than 470 million sources, in addition to the identification of over 11 million variable stars. Using the astrophysical parameters and variability classifications provided in Gaia DR3, we select various stellar populations to explore and identify non-axisymmetric features in the disc of the Milky Way in both configuration and velocity space. Using more about 580 thousand sources identified as hot OB stars, together with 988 known open clusters younger than 100 million years, we map the spiral structure associated with star formation 4-5 kpc from the Sun. We select over 2800 Classical Cepheids younger than 200 million years, which show spiral features extending…
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