When the Milky Way turned off the lights: APOGEE provides evidence of star formation quenching in our Galaxy
@article{Haywood2016WhenTM, title={When the Milky Way turned off the lights: APOGEE provides evidence of star formation quenching in our Galaxy}, author={M. Haywood and Matthew D. Lehnert and P. Di Matteo and Owain N. Snaith and Mathias Schultheis and David Katz and Ana E. G{\'o}mez}, journal={arXiv: Astrophysics of Galaxies}, year={2016} }
Quenching, the cessation of star formation, is one of the most significant events in the life cycle of galaxies. We show here the first evidence that the Milky Way experienced a generalised quenching of its star formation at the end of its thick disk formation $\sim$9 Gyr ago. Elemental abundances of stars studied as part of the APOGEE survey reveal indeed that in less than $\sim$2 Gyr the star formation rate in our Galaxy dropped by an order-of-magnitude. Because of the tight correlation…
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