Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1995-03-10
Astrophys.J. 444 (1995) L89
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
10 pages, no figures, uuencoded postscript. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Scientific paper
10.1086/187867
The mass of the Galactic bulge, $M_B$, is estimated from the tensor virial theorem. By including the effects of a barred stellar distribution and figure rotation (81 \kms kpc $^{-1}$) and by assuming that the bar is oriented at $\theta$ $=$ 20\deg \ to our line of sight, $M_B$ is found to be as high as 2.8$\times$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$. This estimate is in good agreement with the total mass inferred from the observed optical depth to microlensing for stars toward the inner Galaxy. For larger angles, $\theta$ $\sim$ 40\deg, or smaller pattern speeds (20 \kms kpc $^{-1}$), $M_B$ is found to be $\sim$ 1.7 $-$ 1.9$\times$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$, similar to previous estimates for a barred bulge (2$\times$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$) and axisymmetric bulge (1.8$\times$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$).
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