Physical Society Colloquium

Welcome to the Milky Way!
Gaia, the Galaxy and Galactic Dynamics

Kathryn V. Johnston

Department of Astronomy
Columbia University

The Milky Way has long been characterized as dynamically quiet with a fairly smooth potential dominated by a nearly spherical dark matter halo that has evolved little in the last several billion years. This talk outlines our evolving view of our home galaxy, inspired by the ever-growing catalogues that have mapped it - from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to the Gaia mission. It also outlines the work our group is doing to build on classic tools from Galactic Dynamics to more closely connect theory, simulation, observations and data science.

Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7MmA_WW3Dc