Paper detail

Structure and Dynamics of the Milky Way: The Evolving Picture

From the inception of radio astronomy, the study of the Interstellar Medium has been both aided and frustrated by one fact: we are right within it! Our embedded perspective is favourable to observing kinematic and structural details that are likely to remain inaccessible in external galaxies for some time, but not so to gaining a birdseye view of our Galaxy's strucutre and motions on the largest scales. The CGPS is the original survey with the ability to image both details and the "big picture". We will broadly review what we know of the Milky Way (MW), and focus on large-scale ISM structure and dynamics that the IGPS family of surveys depicts particularly well (e.g. spiral structure, the rotation curve, density waves, rolling motions, the warp & scalloping). We also highlight areas where puzzles still exist (e.g. outer spiral structure, the question of shocks and rolling motions in the MW), and offer some new insights (e.g. multiple shocks in the 2nd quadrant; a radially varying spiral pattern speed in the disc) demonstrating what is possible with current and future high-resolution 21 cm surveys.