{"paper":{"title":"Milky Way demographics with the VVV Survey III. Evidence for a Great Dark Lane in the 157 Million Star Bulge Color-Magnitude Diagram","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.GA","authors_text":"D. Minniti, I. Dekany, J. Alonso-Garcia, J. P. Emerson, M. Catelan, M. Hempel, M. Rejkuba, M. Schultheis, M. Zoccali, O. A. Gonzalez, P. W. Lucas, R. Benjamin, R. K. Saito","submitted_at":"2014-09-19T23:56:03Z","abstract_excerpt":"The new generation of IR surveys are revealing and quantifying Galactic features, providing an improved 3-D interpretation of our own Galaxy. We present an analysis of the global distribution of dust clouds in the bulge using the near-IR photometry of 157 million stars from the VVV Survey. We investigate the color magnitude diagram of the Milky Way bulge which shows a red giant clump of core He burning stars that is split in two color components, with a mean color difference of (Z-Ks)=0.55 magnitudes equivalent to A_V=2.0 magnitudes. We conclude that there is an optically thick dust lane at in"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1409.5836","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}