2001/01/01 by L. O. Kerber, S. C. Javiel, B. X. Santiago · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20000140
published as Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.365, p.424-430 (2001) · 7 pages LaTeX, 9 Postscript figures
openalex publication_date 2001/01/01 · arxiv created 2001/02/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We analyse a sample of over 1000 stars from 32 fields imaged in the V and I bands with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera, on board of the Hubble Space Telescope. The fields are located at Galactic latitudes and in various directions on the sky. We consider models for the structure of the Galaxy with different choices for the main parameters governing the shape and luminosity function of the thick disk and stellar halo. Comparing model predictions with the observed colour-magnitude diagram we are able to rule out an increasing or flat stellar luminosity function at the low-luminosity end. We also rule out large values of the vertical scale height of the thick disc, z0, finding it to be in the range pc. As for the local density normalization, values within the range seem to better reproduce the data. Our data essentially rule out a flattened stellar halo () or models with both large local normalization and effective radii.