Microlensing and Galactic Structure

Because we know little about the Galactic force-field away from the plane, the Galactic mass distribution is very ill-determined. I show that a microlensing survey of galaxies closer than 50 Mpc would enable us to map in three dimensions the Galactic density of stellar mass, which should be strictly...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Binney, J
Format: Journal article
Published: 2000
Description
Summary:Because we know little about the Galactic force-field away from the plane, the Galactic mass distribution is very ill-determined. I show that a microlensing survey of galaxies closer than 50 Mpc would enable us to map in three dimensions the Galactic density of stellar mass, which should be strictly less than the total mass density. A lower limit can be placed on the stellar mass needed at R