We have been able to shed new light on the timescale of chemical enrichment across the Milky Way disc, showing that outer regions of the disc take a much longer time to form
- Maria Bergemann
By tracking fast-produced elements, specifically magnesium in this study, astronomers can determine how rapidly different parts of the Milky Way were formed. The research suggests the inner regions of the Galaxy assembled faster than the outer regions, which took much longer time to form, supporting ideas that our Galaxy grew from the inside-out.
Using data from the 8-m VLT in Chile, one of the world’s largest telescopes, an international team of astronomers took detailed observations of stars with a wide range of ages and locations in the Galactic disc to accurately determine their ‘metallicity’: the amount of chemical elements in a star other than hydrogen and helium, the two elements most stars are made from.
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Image: Milky Way Over Crater Lake
Credit: Joe Parks via Flickr
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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