Scale length of the galactic thin disk

This paper presents an analysis of the first 2MASS (The Two Micron All Sky Survey) sampler data as observed at lower Galactic latitude in our Galaxy. These new near-infrared data provide insight into the structure of the thin disk of our Galaxy. The interpretation of star counts and color distributi ons of stars in the near-infrared with the synthetic stellar population mod el, gives strong evidence that the Galactic thin disk density scale length, h(R), is rather short (2.7 +/- 0.1 kpc).