THE TERZAN 5 PUZZLE: DISCOVERY OF A THIRD, METAL-POOR COMPONENT

2013/11/07 by L. Origlia, D. Massari, R. Michael Rich +5 · 3 citations
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Bulge #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Globular cluster #Materials science #Medicine #Metal #Metallicity #Metallurgy #Physics #Population #Spectral line #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Supernova #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/779/1/l5

Accepted for publication on ApJ Letter

arxiv created 2013/11/07 · openalex publication_date 2013/11/21 · arxiv updated 2015/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We report on the discovery of three metal-poor giant stars in Terzan 5, a complex stellar system in the Galactic bulge, known to have two populations at [Fe/H] = −0.25 and +0.3. For these three stars we present new echelle spectra obtained with NIRSPEC at Keck II, which confirm their radial velocity membership and provide an average [Fe/H] = −0.79 dex iron abundance and [α/Fe] = +0.36 dex enhancement. This new population extends the metallicity range of Terzan 5 to 0.5 dex more metal poor, and it has properties consistent with having formed from a gas polluted by core-collapse supernovae.

Citations

• Formation of ω Centauri from an ancient nucleated dwarf galaxy in the young Galactic disc
• ALPHA ENHANCEMENT AND THE METALLICITY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION OF PLAUT’S WINDOW
• High-Resolution Infrared Spectra of Bulge Globular Clusters: The Extreme Chemical Abundances of Terzan 4 and Terzan 5

Cited by

• THE AGE OF THE YOUNG BULGE-LIKE POPULATION IN THE STELLAR SYSTEM TERZAN 5: LINKING THE GALACTIC BULGE TO THE HIGH-Z UNIVERSE*
• PROPER MOTIONS IN TERZAN 5: MEMBERSHIP OF THE MULTI-IRON SUBPOPULATIONS AND FIRST CONSTRAINT ON THE ORBIT
• The accreted nuclear clusters of the Milky Way