Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-21T06:39:08.747Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Chemo-Dynamical History of the Milky Way as Revealed by SDSS/SEGUE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2010

Timothy C. Beers*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Michigan State University, email: beers@pa.msu.edu Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Although originally conceived as primarily an extragalactic survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I), and its extensions SDSS-II and SDSS-III, continue to have a major impact on our understanding of the formation and evolution of our host galaxy, the Milky Way. The sub-survey SEGUE: Sloan Extension for Galactic Exploration and Understanding, excuted as part of SDSS-II, obtained some 3500 square degrees of additional ugriz imaging, mostly at lower Galactic latitudes, in order to better sample the disk systems of the Galaxy. Most importantly, it obtained over 240,000 medium-resolution spectra for stars selected to sample Galactocentric distances from 0.5 to 100 kpc. In combination with stellar targets from SDSS-I, and the recently completed SEGUE-2 program, executed as part of SDSS-III, the total sample of SDSS spectroscopy for Galactic stars comprises some 500,000 objects.

The development of the SEGUE Stellar Parameter Pipeline has enabled the determination of accurate atmospheric parameter estimates for a large fraction of these stars. Many of the stars in this data set within 5 kpc of the Sun have sufficiently well-measured proper motions to determine their full space motions, permitting examination of the nature of much more distant populations represented by members that are presently passing through the solar neighborhood. Ongoing analyses of these data are being used to draw a much clearer picture of the nature of our galaxy, and to supply targets for detailed high-resolution spectrscopic follow-up with the world's largest telescopes. Here we discuss a few highlights of recently completed and ongoing investigations with these data.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

References

Abadi, M. G., et al. 2003, ApJ, 597, 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abazajian, K. N., et al. 2009, ApJS, 182, 543Google Scholar
Adelman-McCarthy, J. K. et al. 2007, ApJS, 172, 634Google Scholar
Allende Prieto, C. et al. 2008, AJ, 136, 2070Google Scholar
An, D., et al. 2009a, ApJ, 700, 523CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An, D., et al. 2009b, ApJL, submitted (ArXiv:0907.1082)Google Scholar
Beers, T. C. et al. 1985, AJ, 90, 2089Google Scholar
Beers, T. C. et al. 1992, AJ, 103, 1987CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brook, C. et al. 2007, ApJ, 658, 60Google Scholar
Carollo, D., et al. 2007, Nature, 450, 1020Google Scholar
Carollo, D., et al. 2009, ApJ, submitted (ArXiv:0903.3019)Google Scholar
Christlieb, N., et al. 2008, A&A, 484, 721Google Scholar
Ivezić, Ž, et al. 2008a, ApJ, 684, 287CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivezić, Ž, et al. 2008b, ArXiv:0805.2366Google Scholar
Johnston, K. V., et al. 2008, ApJ, 689, 936Google Scholar
Kazantzidis, S. et al. 2008, ApJ, 688, 254CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Y. S., et al. 2008a, AJ, 136, 2022CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Y. S., et al. 2008b, AJ, 136, 2050Google Scholar
Lepine, S. 2009, AIP Conf. Proc., 1094, p. 545CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newberg, H. J., et al. 2007, ApJ, 668, 221Google Scholar
Schlaufman, K. C., et al. 2009, ApJ, 703, 2177Google Scholar
Roškar, R., et al. 2008, ApJ, 684, L79Google Scholar
Schönrich, R. & Binney, J. 2009a, MNRAS, 396, 203Google Scholar
Schönrich, R. & Binney, J. 2009b, MNRAS, in press (ArXiv:0907.1899)Google Scholar
Tumlinson, J. 2007, ApJ, 664, L63Google Scholar
York, D. G., et al. 2000, AJ, 120, 1579Google Scholar
Zwitter, T., et al. 2008, AJ, 136, 421CrossRefGoogle Scholar