R. M. Rich: Mapping of the bulge extended horizontal branch; does the bulge contain massive He burning stars?

Collaboration:  open to BDBS team members; current interest from Johnson, Clarkson, and de Propris

Abstract: We propose to map the morphology and extent of the blue horizontal branch in the Galactic bulge, using the globular clusters such as NGC 6522 (that has an EHB) in the BDBS footprint as templates. We seek to determine whether the morphology of the EHB depends on Galactic latitude or longitude, and we propose to match with Gaia and Galex archival data when possible. Saha et al. (2018) argue that a young, massive stellar population of He burning stars may be widespread int he bulge and we propose to use the BDBS u-band photometry to help set limits on such a population.