GHOST Commissioning Science Results: Identifying a New Chemically Peculiar Star in Reticulum II

Christian R. Hayes*, Kim A. Venn, Fletcher Waller, Jaclyn Jensen, Alan W. McConnachie, John Pazder, Federico Sestito, André Anthony, Gabriella Baker, John Bassett, Joao Bento, Trystyn Berg, Gregory Burley, Jurek Brzeski, Scott Case, Edward Chapin, Timothy Chin, Eric Chisholm, Vladimir Churilov, Adam DensmoreRuben Diaz, Jennifer Dunn, Michael Edgar, Tony Farrell, Veronica Firpo, Joeleff Fitzsimmons, Juan Font-Serra, Javier Fuentes, Colin Ganton, Manuel Gomez-Jimenez, Tim Hardy, David Henderson, Alexis Hill, Brian Hoff, Michael Ireland, Venu Kalari, Neal Kelly, Urs Klauser, Yuriy Kondrat, Kathleen Labrie, Sam Lambert, Lance Luvaul, Jon Lawrence, Jordan Lothrop, G. Scott Macdonald, Slavko Mali, Steve Margheim, Richard McDermid, Helen McGregor, Bryan Miller, Felipe Miranda, Rolf Muller, Jon Nielsen, Ryan Norbury, Oliver Oberdorf, Naveen Pai, Gabriel Perez, Pablo Prado, Ian Price, Carlos Quiroz, Vladimir Reshetov, Gordon Robertson, Roque Ruiz-Carmona, Ricardo Salinas, Kim M. Sebo, Andrew Sheinis, Matthew Shetrone, Keith Shortridge, Katherine Silversides, Karleyne Silva, Chris Simpson, Greg Smith, Kei Szeto, Julia Tims, Eduardo Toro, Cristian Urrutia, Sudharshan Venkatesan, Lewis Waller, Ivan Wevers, Ramunas Wierzbicki, Marc White, Peter Young, Ross Zhelem

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST) is the newest high-resolution spectrograph to be developed for a large-aperture telescope, recently deployed and commissioned at the Gemini-South telescope. In this paper, we present the first science results from the GHOST spectrograph taking during its commissioning runs. We have observed the bright metal-poor benchmark star HD 122563, along with two stars in the ultrafaint dwarf galaxy Reticulum II (Ret ii), one of which was previously identified as a candidate member, but did not have a previous detailed chemical abundance analysis. We find that this candidate (GDR3 0928) to be a bona fide member of Ret ii, and from a spectral synthesis analysis it is also revealed to be a CEMP-r star, with significant enhancements in several light elements (C, N, O, Na, Mg, and Si), in addition to featuring an r-process enhancement like many other Ret ii stars. The light-element enhancements in this star resemble the abundance patterns seen in the CEMP-no stars of other ultrafaint dwarf galaxies, and are thought to have been produced by an independent source from the r-process. These unusual abundance patterns are thought to be produced by faint supernovae, which may be produced by some of the earliest generations of stars.

Original languageEnglish
Article number17
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume955
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2023

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