COMMISSION 33: STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF THE GALACTIC SYSTEM

Extract

Research on the structure and dynamics of the Galactic System covers a large dynamic range of spatial scales and timescales and investigates the evolution of gas, stars and dark matter. Much recent activity, not just in Europe, has focused on preparing for the data from the upcoming ESA astrometric mission Gaia, scheduled for launch in 2013. Several ongoing (plus planned) wide-area ground-based surveys, both spectroscopic and photometric, are providing the necessary very large datasets for robust determination of the joint position-chemical-kinematic distribution functions of Galactic stellar populations. The time domain adds another dimension, the goal of ongoing and future massive photometric surveys (e.g. LSST). The dynamical evolution of disks has been the focus of much recent theoretical research, stimulated by the possibility of radial migration of stars and gas under transient dynamical perturbations.