Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21732302s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #323.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The accretion history of the Milky Way is partially encoded in its halo substructure. I describe the results of a systematic statistical search for elements of cold halo substructure (ECHOS) in the radial velocity distribution of stars in the inner halo of the Milky Way observed during the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) survey. Radial velocity substructure is systematically older than surface brightness substructure (e.g., tidal streams), and therefore provides a direct measure of the accretion history of the Milky Way in a region and time interval that has yet to be fully explored. In addition, I measure average chemical abundance properties in both ECHOS and in the kinematically smooth inner halo stellar population. I find that ECHOS are unlikely to be disrupted globular clusters or ultrafaint dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies, and there is evidence to suggest they are the debris of Mtot 109 solar mass dSph galaxy or galaxies. Spatial correlations in line of sight averaged abundance measurements in the smooth halo population indicate that the contribution of disrupted dSph galaxies to the smooth halo population increases with Galactocentric radius.
This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
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