Red Giants in ISOGAL: Tracers of the Evolution of the Galaxy

Abstract

The DENIS/ISOGAL near/mid-IR survey of the Milky Way for the first time probes stellar populations in the innermost obscured regions of our galaxy. Ages, metallicities and extinction-corrected luminosities are derived for these stars individually by isochrone fitting to the preliminary IR photometry. A few hundred AGB stars with thick circumstellar dust envelopes are identified. An old metal-rich population dominates in the inner galactic Bulge, but there are indications for the presence of a younger population. The inner Bulge has a tri-axial shape, as traced by depth effects on the observed luminosity distributions.