The Helmi Stream is a stellar stream of the Milky Way galaxy. It started as a dwarf galaxy, now absorbed by the Milky Way as a stream. It was discovered in 1999, is formed of old stars deficient in heavy elements, and has a mass of 10 to 100 million solar masses. It was absorbed by the Milky Way some 6 to 9 billion years ago.[1]
The stream was named after Amina Helmi, who discovered this stellar stream after noticing this group of stars all moving at the same speed and in the same direction.[2][3] The Helmi Stream discovery affirmed theories that the merging of galaxies played a significant role in creating the giant structures of the Milky Way galaxy.[2]
In 2024 a subdwarf of spectral type sdT4 was identified as a possible member of the Helmi stream. The brown dwarf is called CWISE J155349.96+693355.2 has Vtan > 300 km/s and a poorly constrained radial velocity of +110 ±90 km/s.[4]
Extragalactic planet
editThe Helmi stream was home to the first discovered planet purportedly of extragalactic origin, orbiting the star HIP 13044.[1] Further analysis of radial velocity data failed to confirm the discovery.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Scientific American, "Extragalactic Expat: Newfound Exoplanet Likely Came from Another Galaxy", John Matson , 18 November 2010
- ^ a b "Amina Helmi, the "archeologist of the Milky Way," explains how our own galaxy could unlock the mystery of dark matter". FBBVA. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
The idea had already been mooted that the merging of small galaxies could have played a major part in forming today's giant structures. Helmi developed the tools that were able to test this hypothesis and confirm that it held true, at least for the Milky Way.
- ^ Skibba, Ramin (10 June 2021). "A galactic archaeologist digs into the Milky Way's history". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-060921-1. S2CID 236290725. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ Burgasser, Adam J.; Schneider, Adam C.; Meisner, Aaron M.; Caselden, Dan; Hsu, Chih-Chun; Gerasimov, Roman; Aganze, Christian; Softich, Emma; Karpoor, Preethi; Theissen, Christopher A.; Brooks, Hunter; Bickle, Thomas P.; Gagné, Jonathan; Artigau, Étienne; Marsset, Michaël; Rothermich, Austin; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Kuchner, Marc J.; Andersen, Nikolaj Stevnbak; Beaulieu, Paul; Colin, Guillaume; Gantier, Jean Marc; Gramaize, Leopold; Hamlet, Les; Hinckley, Ken; Kabatnik, Martin; Kiwy, Frank; Martin, David W.; Massat, Diego H.; Pendrill, William; Sainio, Arttu; Schümann, Jörg; Thévenot, Melina; Walla, Jim; Wędracki, Zbigniew; the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Collaboration (2 November 2024). "New Cold Subdwarf Discoveries from Backyard Worlds and a Metallicity Classification System for T Subdwarfs". arXiv:2411.01378 [astro-ph].
{{cite arXiv}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Jones, M. I.; Jenkins, J. S. (2014). "No evidence of the planet orbiting the extremely metal-poor extragalactic star HIP 13044". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 562: id.A129. arXiv:1401.0517. Bibcode:2014A&A...562A.129J. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322132. S2CID 55365608.
 | This star cluster–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This spiral galaxy article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |