NEW DETERMINATION OF THE DISC SCALE LENGTH AND THE RADIAL CUTOFF IN THE ANTICENTER WITH DENIS DATA

This letter presents part of the very first scientific results of the DENIS project (Deep Near-Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky). Star co unts and colour distributions of stars in the near-infrared were obtai ned on a large scale at two different longitudes (l=217 degrees and l= 239 degrees). New evaluations of basic parameters of the galactic disc structure are derived from these new data that lead to strong constra ints on the disc scale length h(R) and moderate ones on the radial cut off R(max) of the stellar disc. We obtain a rather short scale length of 2.3+/-0.1 kpc and a galactic radius of 15+/-2 kpc.