The stellar content of the Hamburg/ESO survey III. Field horizontal-branch stars in the Galaxy

N. Christlieb, T. C. Beers, C. Thom, R. Wilhelm, S. Rossi, C. Flynn, L. Wisotzki, D. Reimers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a sample of 8321 candidate Field Horizontal-Branch (FHB) stars selected by automatic spectral classification in the digital data base of the Hamburg/ESO objective-prism survey. The stars are distributed over 8225 square degrees of the southern sky, at |b| ≳ 30 deg. The average distance of the sample, assuming that they are all FHB stars, is 9.8 kpc, and distances of up to ∼30kpc are reached. Moderate-resolution spectroscopic follow-up observations and UBV photometry of 125 test sample stars demonstrate that the contamination of the full candidate sample with main-sequence A-type stars is <16%, while it would be up to 50% in a flux-limited sample at high galactic latitudes. Hence more than ∼6800 of our FHB candidates are expected to be genuine FHB stars. The candidates are being used as distance probes for high-velocity clouds and for studies of the structure and kinematics of the Galactic halo.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)143-148
Number of pages6
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume431
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2005

Keywords

  • Galaxy: halo
  • Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics
  • Methods: statistical
  • Stars: horizontal-branch
  • Surveys

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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