Population IIastronomy

Assorted References

• main reference ( in Populations I and II )

  in astronomy, two broad classes of stars and stellar assemblages defined in the early 1950s by the German-born astronomer Walter Baade. The members of these stellar populations differ from each other in various ways, most notably in age, chemical composition, and location within galactic systems.

• major reference ( in star cluster: Globular clusters )

  Globular clusters are composed of Population II objects (i.e., old stars). The brightest stars are the red giants, bright red stars with an absolute magnitude of −2, about 600 times the Sun’s brightness or luminosity. In relatively few globular clusters have stars as intrinsically faint as the Sun been measured, and in no such clusters have the faintest stars yet been recorded. The...

• Cepheids ( in Cepheid variable )

  ...The classical Cepheids have periods from about 1.5 days to more than 50 days and belong to the class of relatively young stars found largely in the spiral arms of galaxies and called Population I. Population II Cepheids are much older, less luminous, and less massive than their Population I counterparts. They fall into two groups—W Virginis stars with periods greater than about 10 days...

• characteristics ( in star: Hertzsprung-Russell diagram )

  ...(or colour-magnitude) relation characteristic of stars in globular clusters, in the central bulge of the Galaxy, and in elliptical external galaxies—namely, of the so-called stellar Population II (see Populations I and II). (In addition to these oldest objects, Population II includes other very old stars that occur between the spiral arms of the Galaxy and at some distance...

  in star: Numbers of stars versus luminosity )

  The luminosity function depends on population type. The luminosity function for pure Population II differs substantially from that for pure Population I. There is a small peak near absolute magnitude +0.6, corresponding to the horizontal branch for Population II, and no stars as bright as absolute magnitude −5. The luminosity function for pure Population I is evaluated best from open star...

• long-period variable stars ( in long-period variable star )

  ...one cycle. They are, without exception, red giant and supergiant stars. Those in one fairly distinct group with periods of about 200 days belong generally to the larger class of stars called Population II (older stars found mainly in the galactic core and halo). Another group, that of variables with periods of a year or more, mostly belong to Population I (younger stars found generally...

• position in galaxies ( in Milky Way Galaxy: Principal population types )

  ...these Population I objects were limited to the flat disk of the spirals and suggested that they were absent from the centres of such galaxies and from the ellipticals entirely. Baade designated as Population II the bright red giant stars that he discovered in the ellipticals and in the nucleus of Andromeda. Other objects that seemed to contain the brightest stars of this class were the...

  in Milky Way Galaxy: The stellar luminosity function )

  ...clusters of various types, ages, and dynamical families. Globular clusters are the best samples to use for determining the luminosity function of old stars having a low abundance of heavy elements (Population II stars).