pith. sign in

arxiv: astro-ph/9411095 · v1 · submitted 1994-11-22 · 🌌 astro-ph

How Do the Stellar Disc and Thick Disc Stop ?

classification 🌌 astro-ph
keywords discpopulationthickdistancesformationframesgalacticphotometric
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

As part of a stellar population sampling program, a series of photometric probes at various field sizes and depths have been obtained in a low extinction window in the galactic anticentre direction. Very deep CCD frames probe the most external parts of the disc, providing strong evidence that the galactic density scale length for the old disc population is rather short (2.5 kpc) and drops abruptly beyond 5.5-6 kpc. Deeper frames in the I band allow to estimate photometric distances and confirm the position of the disc edge. A few stars are found at larger distances. Their number is exactly what we expect if the thick disc does not have any cutoff. We discuss the implications for the formation and evolution of the disc, for the star formation threshold, and for the origin of the thick disc population.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.