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The age of the Galaxy's thick disk

2008/10/01 by S. Feltzing, T. Bensby
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxy #Physics #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Thick disk #Thin disk #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1743921309031676

6 pages, contribution to IAU Symposium 258: The Ages of Stars, held in Baltimore, USA, October 13-17, 2008

openalex publication_date 2008/10/01 · arxiv created 2008/11/17 · arxiv updated 2015/05/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Abstract We discuss the age of the stellar disks in the solar neighborhood. After reviewing the various methods for age dating, we discuss current estimates of the ages of both the thin- and the thick disks. We present preliminary results for kinematically-selected stars that belong to the thin- as well as the thick disk. All of these dwarf and sub-giant stars have been studied spectroscopically and we have derived both elemental abundances as well as ages for them. A general conclusion is that in the solar neighborhood, on average, the thick disk is older than the thin disk. However, we caution that the exclusion of stars with effective temperatures around 6500 K might result in a biased view of the full age distribution for the stars in the thick disk.

Citations