#PassionateUniverse News from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDDS) APOGEE surveyed 156,481 stars in its first three years. And of course APOGEE-2 is going to increase this sample size significantly. But to celebrate the successful end of APOGEE and the Data Releases 11 & 12 (also see here), we’d like to share with you a slice of the kind of data it collected. Some background: The APOGEE/APOGEE-2 instrument collects near-infrared spectra of distant stars, and the survey is aimed at studying the history of the Milky Way Galaxy. How it does that is explained here. Along the way, it has taken spectra of each known spectral type: from hot O-type stars (with surface temperatures of about 30,000 degrees, or five times the surface of our own Sun) down to M-type stars (about 3,500 degrees, or roughly half the temperature of the Sun). Each of the spectral types (O, B, A, F, G, K, M) is defined based on how many and what kind of atomic or molecular species are seen in their spectrum. For instance, O-type stars have lots of singly-ionized atomic species visible in their spectra, whereas A-type stars have very strong hydrogen lines, and M-type stars have lots of neutral molecules, especially lines of TiO when you look in the visible portion of the spectrum. Follow link for additional information.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 10:15:35 +0000
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