  Solid insight into the physics of the inner Milky Way is key to understanding
our Galaxy's evolution, but extreme dust obscuration has historically hindered
efforts to map the area along the Galactic mid-plane. New comprehensive
near-infrared time-series photometry from the VVV Survey has revealed 35
classical Cepheids, tracing a previously unobserved component of the inner
Galaxy, namely a ubiquitous inner thin disk of young stars along the Galactic
mid-plane, traversing across the bulge. The discovered period (age) spread of
these classical Cepheids implies a continuous supply of newly formed stars in
the central region of the Galaxy over the last 100 million years.
