ESO: No Place to Hide: Missing Primitive Stars Uncovered

[bystander]

No Place to Hide: Missing Primitive Stars Outside Milky Way Uncovered
ESO Science Release: eso1007 - 2010 Feb 17

After years of successful concealment, the most primitive stars outside our Milky Way galaxy have finally been unmasked. New observations using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have been used to solve an important astrophysical puzzle concerning the oldest stars in our galactic neighbourhood — which is crucial for our understanding of the earliest stars in the Universe.
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The Fornax and Sculptor Dwarf Galaxies are two of our Milky Way’s neighbouring dwarf galaxies. The Milky Way is, like all large galaxies, thought to have formed from smaller galaxies in the early days of the Universe. These small galaxies should also contain many very old stars, just as the Milky Way does, and a team of astronomers has now shown that this is indeed the case.

The Fornax Dwarf Galaxy (ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2)


The Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy (ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2)

[bystander]

Old Star is “Missing Link” in Galactic Evolution
Carnegie Institution for Science - 2010 March 03

A newly discovered star outside the Milky Way has yielded important clues about the evolution of our galaxy. Located in the dwarf galaxy Sculptor some 280,000 light-years away, the star has a chemical make-up similar to the Milky Way’s oldest stars, supporting theories that our galaxy grew by absorbing dwarf galaxies and other galactic building blocks.

arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:0912.4734

[bystander]

First of Missing Primitive Stars Discovered
Center for Astrophysics - 2010 March 03

Astronomers have discovered a relic from the early universe - a star that may have been among the second generation of stars to form after the Big Bang. Located in the dwarf galaxy Sculptor some 290,000 light-years away, the star has a remarkably similar chemical make-up to the Milky Way's oldest stars. Its presence supports the theory that our galaxy underwent a "cannibal" phase, growing to its current size by swallowing dwarf galaxies and other galactic building blocks.