The Wide View of the Galactic Bulge as seen by the VVV ESO Public Survey
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Date
2013
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Abstract
The first year of observations of the Galactic Bulge in the Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV), one of ESO's public surveys with the VISTA telescope, have yielded a deep, near-infrared, multi-colour (Z,Y,J,H,Ks) photometric coverage of over 320 square degrees. Results based on this impressive dataset are presented, showing the global properties of the Bulge. Extinction has been mapped using the magnitude and colour of the red clump, revealing a large amount of small-scale structure. This extinction map has been used to de-redden the VVV stellar photometry to study the Bulge morphology from the absolute magnitude of the red clump and to derive photometric metallicities from the colour of red giant branch stars. The VVV survey continues to obtain multi-epoch data to investigate the variable stars in the Bulge.