Bibcode
Starkenburg, Else; Aguado, D. S.; Bonifacio, Piercarlo; Caffau, Elisabetta; Jablonka, Pascale; Lardo, Carmela; Martin, Nicolas; Sánchez-Janssen, Rubén; Sestito, Federico; Venn, Kim A.; Youakim, Kris; Allende Prieto, C.; Arentsen, Anke; Gentile, Marc; González Hernández, J. I.; Kielty, Collin; Koppelman, Helmer H.; Longeard, Nicolas; Tolstoy, Eline; Carlberg, Raymond G.; Côté, Patrick; Fouesneau, Morgan; Hill, Vanessa; McConnachie, Alan W.; Navarro, Julio F.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 481, Issue 3, p.3838-3852
Advertised on:
12
2018
Citations
61
Refereed citations
53
Description
The early Universe presented a star formation environment that was
almost devoid of heavy elements. The lowest metallicity stars thus
provide a unique window into the earliest Galactic stages, but are
exceedingly rare and difficult to find. Here, we present the discovery
of an ultra-metal-poor star, Pristine_221.8781+9.7844, using narrow-band
Ca H&K photometry from the Pristine survey. Follow-up medium- and
high-resolution spectroscopy confirms the ultra-metal-poor nature of
Pristine_221.8781+9.7844 ([Fe/H] = -4.66 ± 0.13 in 1D LTE) with
an enhancement of 0.3-0.4 dex in α-elements relative to Fe, and an
unusually low carbon abundance. We derive an upper limit of A(C) = 5.6,
well below typical A(C) values for such ultra-metal-poor stars. This
makes Pristine_221.8781+9.7844 one of the most metal-poor stars; in
fact, it is very similar to the most metal-poor star known (SDSS
J102915+172927). The existence of a class of ultra-metal-poor stars with
low(er) carbon abundances suggest that there must have been several
formation channels in the early Universe through which long-lived,
low-mass stars were formed.
Related projects
Chemical Abundances in Stars
Stellar spectroscopy allows us to determine the properties and chemical compositions of stars. From this information for stars of different ages in the Milky Way, it is possible to reconstruct the chemical evolution of the Galaxy, as well as the origin of the elements heavier than boron, created mainly in stellar interiors. It is also possible to
Carlos
Allende Prieto