Reconciling 3D Models for the Central 10 parsecs of the Milky Way

Elisabeth A. C Mills; Natalie O Butterfield; Hauyu Baobab Liu; Dani Lipman; Adam Ginsburg; Mattia C Sormani; Jonathan D Henshaw; Cara D Battersby; Ashley T Barnes; Simon C. O Glover; Francisco Nogueras-Lara; Mark R Morris; Juergen Ott; Cornelia Lang; Claire Cook; Xinyu Mai

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2603.02211

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Reconciling 3D Models for the Central 10 parsecs of the Milky Way

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Reconciling 3D Models for the Central 10 parsecs of the Milky Way

Elisabeth A. C Mills, Natalie O Butterfield, Hauyu Baobab Liu, Dani Lipman, Adam Ginsburg, Mattia C Sormani, Jonathan D Henshaw, Cara D Battersby, Ashley T Barnes, Simon C. O Glover, …

ArXiv.org

Cornell University

03/02/2026

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2603.02211

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Preprint (Author's original)This preprint has not been evaluated by subject experts through peer review. Preprints may undergo extensive changes and/or become peer-reviewed journal articles. Open Access

Abstract

The construction of an accurate 3D model of the Milky Way center is necessary to understand inflow processes that drive its overall evolution, and to compare our Galactic nucleus to other galaxies' nuclei. A main point of contention is the line-of-sight location of sources observed toward the central 10 pc of the Galaxy, including recent star formation (the Sgr A East supernova remnant and Sgr A HII regions) and copious gas (the 50 and 20 km/s molecular clouds, the Circumnuclear Disk, and the Sgr A West ionized "minispiral" that encircles the central supermassive black hole, Sgr A*). Some models place all of these structures within a radius of 5 pc from Sgr A*, while others place the 20 and 50 km/s clouds at a distance of at least 30 - 50 pc away from Sgr A* along the line of sight. We present new radio and millimeter observations of the molecular gas toward the central 10 pc, from which we have constructed an alternative 3D model that is consistent with both prior radio observations and orbital gas kinematics. Our model places the 20 km/s cloud, 50 km/s cloud, and Sgr A East more than 10 pc in front of Sgr A*. While this model does not conclusively rule out a connection between the 50 and 20 km/s clouds and the circumnuclear disk, we argue that prior evidence for these connections is tenuous, especially given the complex spatial and kinematic overlap of structures along the line of sight.

Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies

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Title: Subtitle: Reconciling 3D Models for the Central 10 parsecs of the Milky Way
Creators: Elisabeth A. C Mills
Natalie O Butterfield
Hauyu Baobab Liu
Dani Lipman
Adam Ginsburg
Mattia C Sormani
Jonathan D Henshaw
Cara D Battersby
Ashley T Barnes
Simon C. O Glover
Francisco Nogueras-Lara
Mark R Morris
Juergen Ott
Cornelia Lang
Claire Cook
Xinyu Mai
Resource Type: Preprint
Publication Details: ArXiv.org
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2603.02211
ISSN: 2331-8422
Publisher: Cornell University; Ithaca, New York
Language: English
Date posted: 03/02/2026
Academic Unit: Liberal Arts and Science Admin; Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9985141959702771

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