The broken-exponential radial structure and larger size of the Milky Way galaxy

The radial structure of a galaxy is a fundamental property that reflects its growth and assembly history. Although it is straightforward to measure that of external galaxies, it is challenging for the Milky Way because of our inside perspective. Traditionally, the radial structure of the Milky Way has been assumed to be characterized by a single-exponential disk and a central bulge component. Here we report (1) a measurement of the age-resolved Galactic surface brightness profile in a wide radial range from R = 0 to 17 kpc and (2) the corresponding size of the Milky Way in terms of a half-light radius. We find a broken surface brightness profile with a nearly flat distribution between 3.5 and 7.5 kpc, in contrast to a canonical single-exponential disk. This broken profile results in a half-light radius of 5.75 ± 0.38 kpc, significantly larger than that inferred from a single-exponential disk profile but consistent with that of local disk galaxies of similar mass. We also confirm that the size growth history of the Milky Way is broadly consistent with high-redshift galaxies but with systematically smaller size. Our results suggest that the Milky Way has a more complex radial structure and larger size than previously expected. A reconstruction of the light profile for the Milky Way from an internal perspective provides an estimate of the Galaxy’s size that can be directly compared to other galaxies. This property will help to understand how typical the Milky Way is.