BARFLYS — Bar Ammonia Radiation in Filaments, Lanes, and YSOs

The dust lane features within galaxy bars are thought to mediate the flow of material from the disk to the nucleus, fueling the extreme environment found within the inner regions of galaxies. Our team recently proposed a pilot study with the GBT, targeting the midpoint of the Milky Way’s Galactic Bar Dust Lanes. These NH3 observations, tracing the dense gas structure, showed both compact and extended emission that closely traces the 250 micron dust continuum. Here we propose to expand on the pilot and obtain full coverage of the Milky Way Galactic Bar Dust Lanes using the KFPA receiver on the GBT (BARFLYS: Bar Ammonia Radiation in Filaments, Lanes, and YSOs Survey) to address the following science questions:

  • Where is the dense gas located in the Dust Lanes?
  • How do the dense gas properties (i.e., temperature, turbulence) vary across the extent of the Dust Lanes?
  • How do the dense gas properties compare to clouds in the Galactic Disk and the CMZ?
  • What is the dense gas accretion rate into the CMZ?
  • What are the initial conditions of the dense gas accreting into the CMZ?

Team

Anika Schmiedeke

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