Bibcode
Xue, X.-X.; Ma, Zhibo; Rix, Hans-Walter; Morrison, Heather L.; Harding, Paul; Beers, Timothy C.; Ivans, Inese I.; Jacobson, Heather R.; Johnson, Jennifer; Lee, Young Sun; Lucatello, Sara; Rockosi, Constance M.; Sobeck, Jennifer S.; Yanny, Brian; Zhao, Gang; Allende Prieto, C.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 784, Issue 2, article id. 170, 14 pp. (2014).
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2014
Journal
Citations
86
Refereed citations
74
Description
We present an online catalog of distance determinations for 6036 K
giants, most of which are members of the Milky Way's stellar halo. Their
medium-resolution spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Sloan
Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration are used to derive
metallicities and rough gravity estimates, along with radial velocities.
Distance moduli are derived from a comparison of each star's apparent
magnitude with the absolute magnitude of empirically calibrated
color-luminosity fiducials, at the observed (g – r)0
color and spectroscopic [Fe/H]. We employ a probabilistic approach that
makes it straightforward to properly propagate the errors in
metallicities, magnitudes, and colors into distance uncertainties. We
also fold in prior information about the giant-branch luminosity
function and the different metallicity distributions of the SEGUE
K-giant targeting sub-categories. We show that the metallicity prior
plays a small role in the distance estimates, but that neglecting the
luminosity prior could lead to a systematic distance modulus bias of up
to 0.25 mag, compared to the case of using the luminosity prior. We find
a median distance precision of 16%, with distance estimates most precise
for the least metal-poor stars near the tip of the red giant branch. The
precision and accuracy of our distance estimates are validated with
observations of globular and open clusters. The stars in our catalog are
up to 125 kpc from the Galactic center, with 283 stars beyond 50 kpc,
forming the largest available spectroscopic sample of distant tracers in
the Galactic halo.
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