NEAR-COEVAL FORMATION OF THE GALACTIC BULGE AND HALO INFERRED FROM GLOBULAR-CLUSTER AGES

被引:289
作者
ORTOLANI, S
RENZINI, A
GILMOZZI, R
MARCONI, G
BARBUY, B
BICA, E
RICH, RM
机构
[1] UNIV BOLOGNA,DIPARTMENTO ASTRON,I-40126 BOLOGNA,ITALY
[2] EUROPEAN SO OBSERV,W-8046 GARCHING,GERMANY
[3] OSSERV ASTRON ROMA,I-00136 ROME,ITALY
[4] UNIV SAO PAULO,DEPT ASTRON,BR-05508 SAO PAULO,BRAZIL
[5] UNIV FED RIO GRANDE SUL,DEPT ASTRON,PORTO ALEGRE,RS,BRAZIL
[6] COLUMBIA UNIV,DEPT ASTRON,NEW YORK,NY 10027
关键词
D O I
10.1038/377701a0
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
THE morphology of our Galaxy is characterized by a disk of stars moving on circular orbits, surrounding a central spheroidal body of stars on high-velocity, randomly oriented orbits. The spheroid is further differentiated into an inner bulge and an outer halo; the bulge stars are rich in elements heavier than helium ('metals'), whereas the halo stars are metal-poor, suggesting that the latter formed very early in the history of the Galaxy. (They have experienced little chemical enrichment, by previous generations of stars.) It is not known, however, whether the bulge is the inner extension of the halo, having formed as part of the same process(1), or whether it formed much later, perhaps by a dynamical distortion of the inner regions of the disk(2,3). Here we report observations obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope of two metal-rich globular clusters that form part of the bulge population. Within the uncertainties, these bulge globular clusters appear to be coeval with halo clusters, which suggests that the formation of the bulge was part of the dynamical process that formed the halo, and that the bulge gas underwent rapid chemical enrichment, in less than a few billion years.
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页码:701 / 704
页数:4
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