Relics of Primordial Star Formation: The Milky Way and Local Dwarfs
Abstract
Massive spectroscopic surveys of stars in the thick disk and halo populations of the Galaxy hold the potential to provide strong constraints on the processes involved in (and the timing of) the assembly history of the primary structural components of the Galaxy. In this talk, we explore what has been learned from one of the first such dedicated surveys, SDSS/SEGUE. Over the course of the past three years, SEGUE has obtained spectra for over 200,000 stars, while another hundred thousand stars been added from the calibration star observations of the (primarily extragalactic) SDSS, and other directed programs. A total of well over 10,000 stars with [Fe/H] < −2.0 have been discovered, including several hundred with [Fe/H] < −3.0. Their kinematics have revealed a inner/outer halo structure of the Galaxy.
- Publication:
-
Low-Metallicity Star Formation: From the First Stars to Dwarf Galaxies
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921308025015
- Bibcode:
- 2008IAUS..255..323B
- Keywords:
-
- Astronomical data bases: surveys;
- techniques: spectroscopic;
- methods: data analysis;
- stars: fundamental parameters;
- Galaxy: disk;
- Galaxy: halo