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Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

Thomas Bensby

Senior lecturer

Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

The age of the Galaxy's thick disk

Author

  • Sofia Feltzing
  • Thomas Bensby

Summary, in English

We discuss the age of the stellar disks in the solar neighborhood. After reviewing the various methods for age dating, we discuss current estimates of the ages of both the thin- and the thick disks. We present preliminary results for kineymatically-selected stars that belong to the thin- as well as the thick disk. All of these dwarf and sub-giant stars have been studied spectroscopically and we have derived both elemental abundances as well as ages for them. A general conclusion is that in the solar neighborhood, on average, the thick disk is older than the thin disk. However, we caution that the exclusion of stars with effective temperatures around 6500 K might result in a biased view of the full age distribution for the stars in the thick disk.

Department/s

  • Lund Observatory - Undergoing reorganization

Publishing year

2009

Language

English

Pages

23-30

Publication/Series

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Proceedings

Volume

258

Document type

Conference paper

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Keywords

  • stars: late-type
  • Galaxy: disk
  • Galaxy: structure
  • kinematics and dynamics
  • solar
  • Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
  • neighborhood

Conference name

Ages of stars

Conference date

2008-10-13 - 2008-10-17

Status

Published

Research group

  • Observational and Theoretical Astrophysics

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1743-9213
  • ISSN: 1743-9221