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2023 年 4 月 19 日 星期三 · 数据截至 arXiv / ADS 最新收录日
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优先级 0 · 银河系恒星晕 · 恒星流 · 星系并合

Distant Echoes of the Milky Way's Last Major Merger

Chandra, Vedant, Naidu, Rohan P., Conroy, Charlie, et al.

原文摘要Abstract

The majority of the Milky Way's stellar halo consists of debris from our galaxy's last major merger, the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus (GSE). In the past few years, stars from the GSE have been kinematically and chemically studied in the inner 30 kpc of our galaxy. However, simulations predict that accreted debris could lie at greater distances, forming substructures in the outer halo. Here we derive metallicities and distances using Gaia DR3 XP spectra for an all-sky sample of luminous red giant stars, and map the outer halo with kinematics and metallicities out to 100 kpc. We obtain follow-up spectra of stars in two strong overdensities---including the previously identified outer Virgo Overdensity---and find them to be relatively metal rich and on predominantly retrograde orbits, matching predictions from simulations of the GSE merger. We argue that these are apocentric shells of GSE debris, forming 60--90 kpc counterparts to the 15--20 kpc shells that are known to dominate the inner stellar halo. Extending our search across the sky with literature radial velocities, we find evidence for a coherent stream of retrograde stars encircling the Milky Way from 50 to 100 kpc, in the same plane as the Sagittarius Stream but moving in the opposite direction. These are the first discoveries of distant and structured imprints from the GSE merger, cementing the picture of an inclined and retrograde collision that built up our galaxy's stellar halo.

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银河系最后一次重大合并的遥远回声 · 利用Gaia DR3光谱分析红巨星,在50-100 kpc外晕发现GSE合并产生的富金属逆行壳层与星流,证实了银河系恒星晕由倾斜逆行碰撞形成。

接收 2023-04-19 · 刊出 2023-06-29 · 收录 2026-09-14