Related Research Articles
BPS CS31082-0001, named Cayrel's Star, is an old Population II star located in a distance of 2.1 kpc in the galactic halo. It belongs to the class of ultra-metal-poor stars, specifically the very rare subclass of neutron-capture enhanced stars. It was discovered by Tim C. Beers and collaborators with the Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile and analyzed by Roger Cayrel and collaborators. They used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory in Paranal, Chile for high-resolution optical spectroscopy to determine elemental abundances. The thorium-232 to uranium-238 ratio was used to determine the age. It is estimated to be about 12.5 billion years old, making it one of the oldest known.
Zeta Reticuli, Latinized from ζ Reticuli, is a wide binary star system in the southern constellation of Reticulum. From the southern hemisphere the pair can be seen with the naked eye as a double star in very dark skies. Based upon parallax measurements, this system is located at a distance of about 39.3 light-years from Earth. Both stars are solar analogs that have characteristics similar to those of the Sun. They belong to the Zeta Herculis Moving Group of stars that share a common origin.
A galactic disc is a component of disc galaxies, such as spiral galaxies, lenticular galaxies, and the Milky Way. Galactic discs consist of a stellar component and a gaseous component. The stellar population of galactic discs tend to exhibit very little random motion with most of its stars undergoing nearly circular orbits about the galactic center. Discs can be fairly thin because the disc material's motion lies predominantly on the plane of the disc. The Milky Way's disc, for example, is approximately 1 kly thick, but thickness can vary for discs in other galaxies.
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος, meaning "milky circle". From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.
Zeta Tucanae, Latinized from ζ Tucanae, is a star in the constellation Tucana. It is a spectral class F9.5 main sequence star with an apparent magnitude of +4.23. Despite having a slightly lower mass, this star is more luminous than the Sun. Based upon parallax measurements by the Hipparcos spacecraft, it is approximately 28.0 light years from Earth. This is one of the least variable stars observed during the Hipparcos mission.
Psi Ursae Majoris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. It has an apparent visual magnitude of +3.01, making it a third magnitude star and one of the brighter members of the constellation. Parallax measurements place it at a distance of 144.5 light-years from Earth. This is sufficiently close that the magnitude of the star is only reduced by 0.05 due to extinction. In Chinese astronomy, Psi Ursae Majoris is called Tien Tsan or Ta Tsun, "Extremely Honorable". The name was possibly derived from the word 太尊, Pinyin: Tàizūn, meaning Royals, because this star stands alone as the only member of the Royals asterism within the Purple Forbidden enclosure.
4 Ursae Majoris (sometimes abbreviated 4 UMa) is the Flamsteed designation of a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. It also bears the Bayer designation of Pi2 Ursae Majoris (Pi2 UMa, π2 Ursae Majoris, π2 UMa) and is traditionally named Muscida. With an apparent visual magnitude of +4.6, this star is visible from suburban or darker skies based upon the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale. From parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, this star is at a distance of 256 light-years (78 parsecs) from Earth. As of 2011, one extrasolar planet has been confirmed to be orbiting the star.
BD+17°3248 is an old Population II star located at a distance of roughly 968 light-years in the Galactic Halo. It belongs to the class of ultra-metal-poor stars, especially the very rare subclass of neutron-capture (r-process) enhanced stars.
NGC 5170 is a large, nearby, edge-on spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation of Virgo. It was discovered on February 7, 1785 by William Herschel. This galaxy is located at a distance of 83.5 million light years and is receding at a heliocentric radial velocity of 1,502 km/s. It is a member of the Virgo II Groups, a series of galaxies and galaxy clusters strung out from the southern edge of the Virgo Supercluster.
HD 17925 is a variable star in the equatorial constellation of Eridanus. It has the Gould designation 32 G. Eridani and the variable star designation EP Eri. The star has a yellow-orange hue and is dimly visible to the naked eye in good seeing conditions with an apparent visual magnitude that varies from 6.03 down to 6.08. It is located nearby at a distance of 34 light years from the Sun based on parallax, and is drifting further away with a radial velocity of +18 km/s. It is a likely member of the Local Association of nearby, co-moving stars. The spectrum shows a strong abundance of lithium, indicating that it is young star. This likely makes its point of origin the nearby Scorpio–Centaurus Complex.
V538 Aurigae is a single star in the northern constellation of Auriga. With an apparent visual magnitude of 6.23, this star requires good dark sky conditions to view with the naked eye. It is located at a distance of 40.0 light-years (12.3 pc) from Sun based on parallax. The star is drifting further away with a radial velocity of 0.9 km/s. It is a member of the Local Association, and is most likely a thin disk star.
The thin disk is a structural component of spiral and S0-type galaxies, composed of stars, gas and dust. It is the main non-centre density, of such matter. That of the Milky Way is thought to have a scale height of around 300–400 parsecs (980–1,300 ly) in the vertical axis perpendicular to the disk, and a scale length of around 2.5–4.5 kiloparsecs (8.2–14.7 kly) in the horizontal axis, in the direction of the radius. For comparison, the Sun is 8 kiloparsecs (26 kly) out from the center. The thin disk contributes about 85% of the stars in the Galactic plane and 95% of the total disk stars. It can be set apart from the thick disk of a galaxy since the latter is composed of older population stars created at an earlier stage of the galaxy formation and thus has fewer heavy elements. Stars in the thin disk, on the other hand, are created as a result of gas accretion at the later stages of a galaxy formation and are on average more metal-rich.
The thick disk is one of the structural components of about 2/3 of all disk galaxies, including the Milky Way. It was discovered first in external edge-on galaxies. Soon after, it was proposed as a distinct galactic structure in the Milky Way, different from the thin disk and the halo in the 1983 article by Gilmore & Reid. It is supposed to dominate the stellar number density between 1 and 5 kiloparsecs above the galactic plane and, in the solar neighborhood, is composed almost exclusively of older stars. Its stellar chemistry and stellar kinematics are also said to set it apart from the thin disk. Compared to the thin disk, thick disk stars typically have significantly lower levels of metals—that is, the abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium.
Rho Cygni, Latinized from ρ Cygni, is a yellow-hued star in the northern constellation of Cygnus. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent magnitude of 4.02. The measured annual parallax shift is 26.39 milliarcseconds, which yields a distance estimate of 124 light years. It is moving further from the Sun with a radial velocity of +6.88. The star is a member of the thin disk population of the Milky Way galaxy.
ζ Pictoris, Latinised as Zeta Pictoris, is a solitary star in the southern constellation of Pictor. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of +5.43. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 28.00 mas as seen from the Earth, the system is located 116.5 light years from the Sun.
HD 193664 a star in the northern constellation of Draco. HD 193664 is its Henry Draper Catalogue designation. With an apparent magnitude of 5.93, according to the Bortle Scale it is visible to the naked eye from suburban skies. Parallax measurements yield an estimated distance of 57 light years. It has a relatively large proper motion of 0.558 arc seconds per year across the sky, and is drifting closer to the Sun with a radial velocity of −4.7 km/s.
HN Pegasi is the variable star designation for a young, Sun-like star in the northern constellation of Pegasus. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.9, which, according to the Bortle scale, indicates that it is visible to the naked eye from suburban skies. Parallax measurements put the star at a distance of around 59 light years from the Sun, but it is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −16.7 km/s.
c Ursae Majoris is the Bayer designation for a double-lined spectroscopic binary star system in the northern constellation of Ursa Major. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.18, which indicates that is visible to the naked eye. Parallax measurements yield an estimated distance of 66 light years from the Sun. The star is moving closer to the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of −14 km/s.
Extraplanar gas is cold atomic hydrogen which has been discovered slowly rotating around some spiral galaxies and located well outside their thin disk regions. It was discovered by using radio telescopes to observe the distribution of atomic hydrogen around galaxy disks. Galaxies which have shown evidence of extraplanar gas include NGC 891, NGC 2403, UGC 7321, NGC 4559 and NGC 3198.
The [α/Fe] versus [Fe/H] diagram refers to the graph, commonly used in stellar and galactic astrophysics. It shows the logarithmic ratio number densities of diagnostic elements in stellar atmospheres compared to the solar value. The x-axis represents the abundance of iron (Fe) vs. hydrogen (H), that is, [Fe/H]. The y-axis represents the combination of one or several of the alpha process elements compared to iron (Fe), denoted as [α/Fe].
References
- ↑ Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Freeman, Kenneth (2014). "Near Field Cosmology: The Origin of the Galaxy and the Local Group". The Origin of the Galaxy and Local Group. Saas-Fee Advanced Course. Vol. 37. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 1–144. Bibcode:2014SAAS...37....1B. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-41720-7_1. ISBN 978-3-642-41719-1. ISSN 1861-7980.
- ↑ del Peloso et al., "The age of the Galactic thin disk from Th/Eu nucleocosmochronology I. Determination of Th/Eu abundance ratios." Astronomy & Astrophysics, 434, (2005) 275.
- ↑ del Peloso et al., "The age of the Galactic thin disk from Th/Eu nucleocosmochronology II. Chronological analysis." Astronomy & Astrophysics, 434, (2005) 301.
- ↑ del Peloso et al., "The age of the Galactic thin disk from Th/Eu nucleocosmochronology III. Extended sample." Astronomy & Astrophysics, 440, (2005) 1153.
- ↑ Hill, V.; Plez, B.; Cayrel, R.; Beers, T. C.; Nordström, B.; Andersen, J.; Spite, M.; Spite, F.; Barbuy, B.; Bonifacio, P.; Depagne, E.; François, P.; Primas, F. (2002). "First stars. I. The extreme r-element rich, iron-poor halo giant CS 31082-001". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 387 (2): 560–579. arXiv: astro-ph/0203462 . Bibcode:2002A&A...387..560H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20020434. ISSN 0004-6361. S2CID 3064681.
 | This astrophysics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This nuclear physics or atomic physics–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |