Bibcode
Chaplin, William J.; Serenelli, Aldo M.; Miglio, Andrea; Morel, Thierry; Mackereth, J. Ted; Vincenzo, Fiorenzo; Kjeldsen, Hans; Basu, Sarbani; Ball, Warrick H.; Stokholm, Amalie; Verma, Kuldeep; Mosumgaard, Jakob Rørsted; Silva Aguirre, Victor; Mazumdar, Anwesh; Ranadive, Pritesh; Antia, H. M.; Lebreton, Yveline; Ong, Joel; Appourchaux, Thierry; Bedding, Timothy R.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Creevey, Orlagh; García, Rafael A.; Handberg, Rasmus; Huber, Daniel; Kawaler, Steven D.; Lund, Mikkel N.; Metcalfe, Travis S.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Bazot, Michäel; Beck, Paul G.; Bell, Keaton J.; Bergemann, Maria; Buzasi, Derek L.; Benomar, Othman; Bossini, Diego; Bugnet, Lisa; Campante, Tiago L.; Orhan, Zeynep Çelik; Corsaro, Enrico; González-Cuesta, Lucía; Davies, Guy R.; Di Mauro, Maria Pia; Egeland, Ricky; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; Gaulme, Patrick; Ghasemi, Hamed; Guo, Zhao; Hall, Oliver J.; Hasanzadeh, Amir; Hekker, Saskia; Howe, Rachel; Jenkins, Jon M.; Jiménez, Antonio; Kiefer, René; Kuszlewicz, James S.; Kallinger, Thomas; Latham, David W.; Lundkvist, Mia S.; Mathur, Savita; Montalbán, Josefina; Mosser, Benoit; Bedón, Andres Moya; Nielsen, Martin Bo; Örtel, Sibel; Rendle, Ben M.; Ricker, George R.; Rodrigues, Thaíse S.; Roxburgh, Ian W.; Safari, Hossein; Schofield, Mathew; Seager, Sara; Smalley, Barry; Stello, Dennis; Szabó, Róbert; Tayar, Jamie; Themeßl, Nathalie; Thomas, Alexandra E. L.; Vanderspek, Roland K.; van Rossem, Walter E.; Vrard, Mathieu; Weiss, Achim; White, Timothy R.; Winn, Joshua N.; Yıldız, Mutlu
Bibliographical reference
Nature Astronomy
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1
2020
Citations
53
Refereed citations
47
Description
Over the course of its history, the Milky Way has ingested multiple smaller satellite galaxies1. Although these accreted stellar populations can be forensically identified as kinematically distinct structures within the Galaxy, it is difficult in general to date precisely the age at which any one merger occurred. Recent results have revealed a population of stars that were accreted via the collision of a dwarf galaxy, called Gaia-Enceladus1, leading to substantial pollution of the chemical and dynamical properties of the Milky Way. Here we identify the very bright, naked-eye star ν Indi as an indicator of the age of the early in situ population of the Galaxy. We combine asteroseismic, spectroscopic, astrometric and kinematic observations to show that this metal-poor, alpha-element-rich star was an indigenous member of the halo, and we measure its age to be 11.0 ±0.7 ? (stat) ±0.8 ? (sys) billion years. The star bears hallmarks consistent with having been kinematically heated by the Gaia-Enceladus collision. Its age implies that the earliest the merger could have begun was 11.6 and 13.2 billion years ago, at 68% and 95% confidence, respectively. Computations based on hierarchical cosmological models slightly reduce the above limits.
Related projects
Helio and Astero-Seismology and Exoplanets Search
The principal objectives of this project are: 1) to study the structure and dynamics of the solar interior, 2) to extend this study to other stars, 3) to search for extrasolar planets using photometric methods (primarily by transits of their host stars) and their characterization (using radial velocity information) and 4) the study of the planetary
Savita
Mathur