Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. A stellar stream remnant of a globular cluster below the metallicity floor
 
research article

A stellar stream remnant of a globular cluster below the metallicity floor

Martin, Nicolas F.
•
Venn, Kim A.
•
Aguado, David S.
Show more
January 6, 2022
Nature

Stellar ejecta gradually enrich the gas out of which subsequent stars form, making the least chemically enriched stellar systems direct fossils of structures formed in the early Universe(1). Although a few hundred stars with metal content below 1,000th of the solar iron content are known in the Galaxy2-4, none of them inhabit globular clusters, some of the oldest known stellar structures. These show metal content of at least approximately 0.2% of the solar metallicity([Fe/H]greater than or similar to- 2.7). This metallicity floor appears universal(5,6), and it has been proposed that protogalaxies that merged into the galaxies we observe today were simply not massive enough to form clusters that survived to the present day(7). Here we report observations of a stellar stream, C-19, whose metallicity is less than 0.05% of the solar metallicity ([Fe/H]= - 3.38 +/- 0.06 (statistical) +/- 0.20 (systematic)). The low metallicity dispersion and the chemical abundances of the C-19 stars show that this stream is the tidal remnant of the most metal-poor globular cluster ever discovered, and is significantly below the purported metallicity floor: clusters with significantly lower metallicities than observed today existed in the past and contributed their stars to the Milky Way halo.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/s41586-021-04162-2
Web of Science ID

WOS:000936051500005

Author(s)
Martin, Nicolas F.
•
Venn, Kim A.
•
Aguado, David S.
•
Starkenburg, Else
•
Gonzalez Hernandez, Jonay I.
•
Ibata, Rodrigo A.
•
Bonifacio, Piercarlo
•
Caffau, Elisabetta
•
Sestito, Federico
•
Arentsen, Anke
Show more
Date Issued

2022-01-06

Publisher

NATURE PORTFOLIO

Published in
Nature
Volume

601

Issue

7891

Start page

45

End page
Subjects

Multidisciplinary Sciences

•

Science & Technology - Other Topics

•

lte line formation

•

late-type stars

•

milky-way halo

•

pristine survey

•

evolution

•

database

•

galaxy

•

fe

•

1d

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LASTRO  
Available on Infoscience
March 13, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/195900
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés