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Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/s2/3/a/solution
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Past exam of the short options paper shared by Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford
/
2019
/
S2
/
3
/
a
/
Solution
by
Codex
0
2026-10-25
The
Milky Way
has a
thin stellar
galactic disk
,
radius
roughly
15
–
20
kpc
and
scale height
about
0.3
kpc
, containing
gas
, dust, young and old
stars
,
spiral arms
and most current
star formation
. Its stellar
mass
is
a
few
1
0
10
M
⊙
.
A
thicker, older
galactic disk
has
scale height
around
1
kpc
and stellar
mass
of order
1
0
10
M
⊙
, with little
cold
gas
.
The central
galactic bulge
and
bar
extend
a
few thousand
parsecs
and contain about
1
0
10
M
⊙
, largely older
stars
. The central
supermassive black hole
has
mass
about
4
×
1
0
6
M
⊙
and is negligible in the total galactic budget.
A
diffuse old
metal
-poor
stellar halo
, extending tens to over
100
kpc
, contains
globular clusters
and roughly
1
0
9
M
⊙
in
stars
. An extended
dark matter halo
reaches roughly
200
kpc
and dominates the total
mass
, of order
1
0
12
M
⊙
. These are approximate component scales; the gaseous
galactic halo
also extends beyond the stellar
galactic disk
.
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