The Structure of the Galactic Halo

We used the star counts in 21 BATC fields obtained with the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) 60/90 cm Schmidt Telescope to study the structure of the Galactic halo.Adopting a de Vaucouleurs γ/4 law halo,we found that the halo is somewhat flatter (c/a～0.4) towards the Galactic center than in the anticentre and antirotation direction (c/a ＞ 0.4).We also notice that the axial ratios are smaller (flatter) towards the low latitude fields than the high latitude fields,except for a few fields.We provide robust limits on the large-scale flattening of the halo.Our analysis shows that the axial ratio of the halo may vary with distance and the observation direction.At large Galactocentric radii,the halo may not have a smooth density distribution,but rather,it may be largely composed of overlapping streams or substructures,which provides a support for the hybrid formation model.