Hubble image archive
Stellar Motions of Halo Stars in Milky Way
This illustration shows the disk of our Milky Way galaxy, surrounded by a faint, extended halo of old stars. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the nearby Andromeda galaxy serendipitously identified a dozen foreground stars in the Milky Way halo. They measure...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2013
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2013-07-3146-image
This illustration shows the disk of our Milky Way galaxy, surrounded by a faint, extended halo of old stars. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the nearby Andromeda galaxy serendipitously identified a dozen foreground stars in the Milky Way halo. They measured the first sideways motions (represented by the arrows) for such distant halo stars. The motions indicate the possible presence of a shell in the halo, which may have formed from the accretion of a dwarf galaxy. This observation supports the view that the Milky Way has undergone continuing growth and evolution over its lifetime by consuming smaller galaxies.
Credits
Illustration: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI);Science: NASA, ESA, A. Deason and P. Guhathakurta (University of California, Santa Cruz), and R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and T. Brown (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Milky Way Halo |
| Object Description | Milky Way Shell Structure |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The Hubble data used in this science finding are from proposals and , PI: T. Brown (STScI), and , PI: R. van der Marel (STScI). The science team consists of: A. Deason and P. Guhathakurta (University of California, Santa Cruz), and R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and T. Brown (STScI). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | December 2002 - January 2003, August 2004 - January 2005, January - August 2010 |
| Filters | F606W (V) and F814W (I) |
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