Most Distant Milky Way Star Detected... And It's One Third the Distance to the Andromeda Galaxy
The distant outskirts of the Milky Way harbor valuable clues for understanding the formation and evolution of our galaxy. Yet, due to overwhelming distances and an extremely sparse population of stars, many objects have not been identified beyond 400,000 light years. A team of astronomers has now discovered two stars in the Milky Way's halo that are the most distant ever detected at distances of 775,000 and 900,000 light years, respectively -- five times more distant than the Large Magellanic Cloud and about one third of the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy.
Comments:
The article glosses over how they explain how these stars got to distant regions, billions of years after the last galactic collisions when the stars they found are actually younger than those events
Perhaps they were ejected from the Milky Way in some encounter. But it didn't say how old they are. They could be as old as the formation of the galaxy.
An amazing report ! Some lonely travelers orbiting in "our" personal galaxy. Gary, I always read your reports. I wonder how many other AstroMarters find the time or are aware of them !<br>Thank you very much for your reports and thanks especially to Herb for providing the platform !<br>Clear skies !<br><br>Pete Hallock<br>Orcutt, California<br><br>"Old Town " Orcutt, named after William Warren Orcutt, Stanford Graduate, who lead Union Oil Company to be the first company in the world to establish a geology department for research. Before, prospectors would search for a likely location to drill for oil by sniffing gopher holes, etc.<br>We live on Union Avenue in "Old Town" Orcutt, a section of Orcutt, which is in Santa Barbara county near Santa Maria.
"An amazing report ! Some lonely travelers orbiting in "our" personal galaxy. Gary, I always read your reports. I wonder how many other AstroMarters find the time or are aware of them !"<br><br>Did you mean "Guy"? <img class='' src='http://new.astromart.com/astromart/javascripts/sceditor/emoticons/smile.png' alt='smile' title='smile'/> I almost always read them. I don't know whether Guy writes them or not, but they are better, more intelligently written than the reports in Sky & Telescope, IMO.<br><br>And yes, amazing. Imagine if there are planets, with life. Living on a planet with a night sky with no stars - not even knowing that such a thing as a star exists. What would their world view be like?
Mr. Pirro,<br><br>I have read many of your articles posted here on Astromart and have enjoyed everyone of them. Each article has been informative and enjoyable reading. Thank you so very much for your endeavor. Your efforts are most appreciated.<br><br>Thank you,<br><br>R. Moubry MD
Ron:<br><br>Thanks for the kind words.<br><br>I hope all of the folks on AstroMart enjoy reading these news items as much as I enjoy posting them. I try to select topics related to discoveries that are unique and often not expected -- Those are the ones that interest me the most.<br><br>At times I'll try to explain the science behind the discoveries as best as I can, but frankly even the experts who "live and breathe" this stuff often have a difficult time reconciling their findings with what they "think" they know.<br><br>It seems that the more we learn about the Universe, the more we realize how little we really do know.<br><br>Thanks again,<br><br>Guy Pirro<br><br><br><br><blockquote class="blockquote"><div class="italic"><i>Ron Moubry said:</i><br><br>Mr. Pirro,<br><br>I have read many of your articles posted here on Astromart and have enjoyed everyone of them. Each article has been informative and enjoyable reading. Thank you so very much for your endeavor. Your efforts are most appreciated.<br><br>Thank you,<br><br>R. Moubry MD</div></blockquote>
