J/A+A/711/A232ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/711/A232CDSValenzuela-Navarro A.Zoccali M.Valenti E.Contreras-Ramos R.,Rojas-Arriagada A.Luna A.Albarracin R.Gallart C.,Olivares Carvajal J.Gran F.Salvo-Guajardo C.Nandakumar G.,Renzini A.2026-07-17T09:05:19Z2026-07-17T10:04:55ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frmilky-way-galaxyinfrared-sourcesinterstellar-mediuminterstellar-reddeningextinctionThe Nuclear Bulge of the Milky Way harbors stellar populations that provide crucial insights into galaxy formation processes and serve as a nearby analog for understanding bulge formation in external galaxies. However, detailed studies of this region are severely hampered by extreme and highly variable interstellar extinction, which obscures the intrinsic stellar properties and impedes accurate stellar mass determinations. Our goal is to measure the extinction law towards the Nuclear Bulge and to estimate its stellar density. We developed a method to determine the extinction law towards the Nuclear Bulge by kinematically selecting red clump stars belonging to this region. We created a high-spatial resolution extinction map, and computed stellar mass with completeness-corrected red clump star counts, scaled from empirical measurements. We find a total-to-selective extinction ratio of A_K_/E(H-K)=1.259+/-0.074, and an extinction ratio of A_H_/A_K_=1.794+/-0.046, which are consistent with previous works. The high-spatial resolution extinction map shows clear filamentary structures, and a gradient in the extinction over the giant molecular cloud G0.253+0.016 (i.e., the Brick). From the star counts, we measured a stellar mass of 12.2x10^8^M_{sun}_ for the Nuclear Bulge, in agreement with other mass estimates.2026A&A...711A.232Vhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/711/A232CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/711/A232https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/711/A232http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/711/A232https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/711/A232https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/711/A232http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/711/A232GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/A+A/711/A232/redd_map (Reddening map of the Nuclear Bulge (table C1))https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/711/A232/redd_map?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/711/A232/redd_map?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/711/A232/redd_map?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true266.2781428417-29.24904323270.0055555555555555566/28827 28830https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/A+A/711/A232?format=asciiInfrareddefaultJ/A+A/711/A232/redd_mapReddening map of the Nuclear Bulge (table C1)recnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintGLON[-0.5/1.0] Galactic longitudedegpos.galactic.lonindexedGLAT[-0.07/0.07] Galactic latitudedegpos.galactic.latindexedE(H-Ks)Selective extinction E(H-Ks)magphys.absorptionfloatInterpMsk[0/1] Interpolation mask (0=measured, 1=interpolated) (1)meta.codeint_RA.icrsRight ascension (ICRS) (computed by VizieR, not part of the original data. The format may include more digits than the original data because of internal accuracy requirements in VizieR and across other CDS services)degpos.eq.raindexed_DE.icrsDeclination (ICRS) (computed by VizieR, not part of the original data. The format may include more digits than the original data because of internal accuracy requirements in VizieR and across other CDS services)degpos.eq.decindexed