Survey suggests group of Milky Way stars are homegrown, not alien invaders

upi ^ | Feb. 26, 2018 at 4:08 PM | Brooks Hays 

[BenLurkin]

Like our sun, the majority of the Milky Way's stars are located within the galaxy's central disk. A comparatively smaller portion of stars can be found distributed throughout the galaxy's outer halo.

The star aren't scattered randomly, however. Many of them can be organized into large-scale structures -- structures astronomers believe hold clues to the Milky Way's violent past. Scientists believe at least some of these stellar structures are the remnants of smaller galaxies that have collided with and were absorbed by the Milky Way.

As part of the latest study, astronomers analyzed the properties of 14 stars located within two stellar structures, Triangulum-Andromeda and the A13 stellar overdensities. Though the two structures are positioned on opposite sides of the galactic plane, previous studies suggest they're kinematically linked and may be related to the Monoceros Ring, a halo structure encircling the entire Milky Way.

Astronomers analyzed the chemical makeup of the two stellar structures using the spectral instruments of the Keck and VLT telescopes.

Though they exist on either side of the galactic plane -- above and below -- research has shown the Triangulum-Andromeda and the A13 stellar overdensities to be kinetically linked.
Photo by T.Mueller/NASA/JPL-Caltech

[onedoug]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[minnesota_bound]

If you zoom in a bit you can see a wall along the edge of the galaxy....

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·

Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj.

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe