Age dating of an early Milky Way merger via asteroseismology of the naked-eye star ν Indi

William J. Chaplin*, Aldo M. Serenelli, Andrea Miglio, Thierry Morel, J. Ted Mackereth, Fiorenzo Vincenzo, Hans Kjeldsen, Sarbani Basu, Warrick H. Ball, Amalie Stokholm, Kuldeep Verma, Jakob Rørsted Mosumgaard, Victor Silva Aguirre, Anwesh Mazumdar, Pritesh Ranadive, H. M. Antia, Yveline Lebreton, Joel Ong, Thierry Appourchaux, Timothy R. BeddingJørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Orlagh Creevey, Rafael A. García, Rasmus Handberg, Daniel Huber, Steven D. Kawaler, Mikkel N. Lund, Travis S. Metcalfe, Keivan G. Stassun, Michäel Bazot, Paul G. Beck, Keaton J. Bell, Maria Bergemann, Derek L. Buzasi, Othman Benomar, Diego Bossini, Lisa Bugnet, Tiago L. Campante, Zeynep Çelik Orhan, Enrico Corsaro, Lucía González-Cuesta, Guy R. Davies, Maria Pia Di Mauro, Ricky Egeland, Yvonne P. Elsworth, Patrick Gaulme, Hamed Ghasemi, Zhao Guo, Oliver J. Hall, Amir Hasanzadeh, Saskia Hekker, Rachel Howe, Jon M. Jenkins, Antonio Jiménez, René Kiefer, James S. Kuszlewicz, Thomas Kallinger, David W. Latham, Mia S. Lundkvist, Savita Mathur, Josefina Montalbán, Benoit Mosser, Andres Moya Bedón, Martin Bo Nielsen, Sibel Örtel, Ben M. Rendle, George R. Ricker, Thaíse S. Rodrigues, Ian W. Roxburgh, Hossein Safari, Mathew Schofield, Sara Seager, Barry Smalley, Dennis Stello, Róbert Szabó, Jamie Tayar, Nathalie Themeßl, Alexandra E.L. Thomas, Roland K. Vanderspek, Walter E. van Rossem, Mathieu Vrard, Achim Weiss, Timothy R. White, Joshua N. Winn, Mutlu Yıldız

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    51 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    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.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)382-389
    Number of pages8
    JournalNature Astronomy
    Volume4
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2020

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