An excess of very bright stars in the inner bulge

Abstract

From an analysis of the stars remaining in central regions of the Galaxy after subtracting those belonging to the disc and the bulge, we deduce that the inner bulge must have an extra young population with respect to the rest of the bulge. It is shown that there is a higher ratio of very bright stars in the central bulge than there is in the outer bulge. This is interpreted as being an additional young component due to the presence of star formation regions near the Galactic Centre which is absent in the outer bulge.