Atomic and Molecular Gas in the Inner Regions of the Milky Way and Other Galaxies

Abstract

It seems likely that we inhabit a galactic system which in its gross characteristics exemplifies the present meaning of the word “normal”. The general framework for interpreting the distribution and kinematics of the observed gas consists of a well-defined rotation curve, applicable over the great majority of a thin, nearly flat disk; the stars and gas within this disk are generally quite cold, having little energy in random as opposed to well-ordered motions. In fact, neutral gas in the galactic disk is sufficiently regular in its structure that no grand pattern of spiral arms stands out in sharp relief.As one moves inward in the Galaxy from the location of the Sun, this regularity persists to within about 4 kpc of the center, at which distance the abundance of gas in either atomic or molecular form drops fairly abruptly. Inside this region, the character of the gas distribution undergoes a marked change and the behaviour observed there, while it may be common to even the best-ordered systems, represents a rather spectacular departure from the organization at larger galacto-centric radii. As the gas abundance increases once more toward the galactic center it is seen to reside in a multitude of individual features having disparate spatial and kinematic properties. Many of these have large and/or obvious components of non-circular motion, usually taken as indicating expulsion of matter from the galactic center region at both large and small angles with respect to the rotation axis of the galaxy at large. Others, while occurring at velocities whose sign is consistent with rotation motion alone, have contradictory changes in velocity with position. Line profiles taken in the inner regions of the Galaxy are generally decomposed according to catalogs of classifiable features but no generally accepted interpretative framework exists as a means of relating the wide variety of observable phenomena.