Other
Scientific paper
Feb 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005noao.prop..189y&link_type=abstract
NOAO Proposal ID #2005A-0189
Other
Scientific paper
Buried within the low surface brightness regions of galaxies are the remnants of their earliest assembly, namely the thick disk and stellar halo. These components contain a fossil record of the processes which led to their formation over 10 billion years ago. Detailed studies of the kinematics of the thick disk and stellar halo have provided the only direct constraints on the early history of the Milky Way, even though these components contain a small fraction of the Galaxy's total stellar mass. It is now possible to make similar measurements in galaxies other than the Milky Way. Due to the recent discovery that thick disks surround all disk galaxies, we are now in a position to study the kinematics of thick disks in galaxies of a wide range in mass, teaching us about galaxy formation in general, not just within the Milky Way. Specifically, we have begun an NOAO program to measure the relative dynamics of the thick and thin disks in a well-defined sample of nearby edge-on galaxies. These measurements will place tight constraints on the origin of the thick disk, and will cleanly discriminate between different merging and collapse scenarios for the formation of this critical tracer of the early evolution of disk galaxies. This proposal is a continuation of a program to measure thick disk dynamics for ~3 galaxies in 3 mass ranges. We have used both Gemini North and South for the past two years and have observed 6 galaxies and submitted results for 2 of these galaxies for publication. We are now requesting enough time to complete our sample.
Dalcanton Julianne
Yoachim Peter
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