Milky Way’s structure based on thousands of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars from OGLE

Abstract

AbstractClassical Cepheids and RR Lyrae-type variable stars are widely-used tracers of young (< 300 Myr) and old (> 10 Gyr) stellar populations, respectively. These stars also serve as distance indicators allowing for Galactic structure studies. Robust detection of pulsating variables requires precise and relatively frequent observations over several years. Recently, the OGLE survey has discovered nearly 1,300 new genuine classical Cepheids and 15,000 RR Lyrae stars along the southern Galactic plane. Here, we present the picture of the Milky Way’s thin disk drawn with the Cepheids and the view of the Galactic old population that emerges from the set of known RR Lyrae stars.