Kinematic evidence for an old stellar halo in the large Magellanic Cloud

Dante Minniti; Jura Borissova; Marina Rejkuba; David R. Alves; Kem H. Cook; Kenneth C. Freeman

doi:10.1126/science.1088529

Kinematic evidence for an old stellar halo in the large Magellanic Cloud

Dante Minniti^*, Jura Borissova, Marina Rejkuba, David R. Alves, Kem H. Cook, Kenneth C. Freeman

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

59 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The oldest and most metal-poor Milky Way stars form a kinematically hot halo, which motivates the two major formation scenarios for our galaxy: extended hierarchical accretion and rapid collapse. RR Lyrae stars are excellent tracers of old and metal-poor populations. We measured the kinematics of 43 RR Lyrae stars in the inner regions of the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) galaxy. The velocity dispersion equals 53 ± 10 kilometers per second, which indicates that a kinematically hot metal-poor old halo also exists in the LMC. This result suggests that our galaxy and smaller late-type galaxies such as the LMC have similar early formation histories.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1508-1510
Number of pages	3
Journal	Science
Volume	301
Issue number	5639
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1088529
Publication status	Published - 12 Sept 2003

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title = "Kinematic evidence for an old stellar halo in the large Magellanic Cloud",

abstract = "The oldest and most metal-poor Milky Way stars form a kinematically hot halo, which motivates the two major formation scenarios for our galaxy: extended hierarchical accretion and rapid collapse. RR Lyrae stars are excellent tracers of old and metal-poor populations. We measured the kinematics of 43 RR Lyrae stars in the inner regions of the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) galaxy. The velocity dispersion equals 53 ± 10 kilometers per second, which indicates that a kinematically hot metal-poor old halo also exists in the LMC. This result suggests that our galaxy and smaller late-type galaxies such as the LMC have similar early formation histories.",

author = "Dante Minniti and Jura Borissova and Marina Rejkuba and Alves, {David R.} and Cook, {Kem H.} and Freeman, {Kenneth C.}",

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AU - Minniti, Dante

AU - Borissova, Jura

AU - Rejkuba, Marina

AU - Alves, David R.

AU - Cook, Kem H.

AU - Freeman, Kenneth C.

PY - 2003/9/12

Y1 - 2003/9/12

N2 - The oldest and most metal-poor Milky Way stars form a kinematically hot halo, which motivates the two major formation scenarios for our galaxy: extended hierarchical accretion and rapid collapse. RR Lyrae stars are excellent tracers of old and metal-poor populations. We measured the kinematics of 43 RR Lyrae stars in the inner regions of the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) galaxy. The velocity dispersion equals 53 ± 10 kilometers per second, which indicates that a kinematically hot metal-poor old halo also exists in the LMC. This result suggests that our galaxy and smaller late-type galaxies such as the LMC have similar early formation histories.

AB - The oldest and most metal-poor Milky Way stars form a kinematically hot halo, which motivates the two major formation scenarios for our galaxy: extended hierarchical accretion and rapid collapse. RR Lyrae stars are excellent tracers of old and metal-poor populations. We measured the kinematics of 43 RR Lyrae stars in the inner regions of the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) galaxy. The velocity dispersion equals 53 ± 10 kilometers per second, which indicates that a kinematically hot metal-poor old halo also exists in the LMC. This result suggests that our galaxy and smaller late-type galaxies such as the LMC have similar early formation histories.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0141483760&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1126/science.1088529

DO - 10.1126/science.1088529

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VL - 301

SP - 1508

EP - 1510

JO - Science

JF - Science

IS - 5639

ER -

Kinematic evidence for an old stellar halo in the large Magellanic Cloud

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