Straybow
SOC-14 1K
Also, stellar distribution may not diminish very quickly outside the thick disk. What diminishes most visibly are the dust clouds and very bright (O, B, and A) stars.
Likewise for the spiral arms, dust and very bright (and short lived, and therefore very young) stars are what makes them visible. Between the arms the stellar density may be somewhat diminished, but not drastically.
Population II stars in the spherical envelope are significantly thinner in distribution.
All of this is really hard to quantify because M and K stars that far away are too dim to be directly imaged. Even G stars would be too dim to get a good assessment of distance.
Likewise for the spiral arms, dust and very bright (and short lived, and therefore very young) stars are what makes them visible. Between the arms the stellar density may be somewhat diminished, but not drastically.
Population II stars in the spherical envelope are significantly thinner in distribution.
All of this is really hard to quantify because M and K stars that far away are too dim to be directly imaged. Even G stars would be too dim to get a good assessment of distance.
