Population II

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Proposed by astronomer Walter Baade in 1944.

Proper noun

[edit]

Population II

  1. (astrophysics, usually attributively) A population or group of stars formed early in the history of the Universe, characterized by having a low metallicity.
    Coordinate terms: Population I, Population III
    • 2019 December 11, Brian Koberlein, “The Stars In Our Galaxy Are More Varied Than We Thought”, in Forbes[1], archived from the original on 2022-09-15:
      While the thick disk is largely composed of Population II stars, they found it contains two stellar populations.
    • 2021 May 21, Tom Metcalfe, “An ancient star casts new light on the birth of the universe”, in NBC News[2], archived from the original on 2022-07-06:
      Those heavy elements were created by fusion within Population II stars that exploded as supernovas and seeded them into interstellar clouds.
    • 2022 December 6, Jonathan O'Callaghan, “Astronomers Grapple with JWST’s Discovery of Early Galaxies”, in Scientific American[3], archived from the original on 2022-12-09:
      The brightness of these galaxies could be attributed to such stars, which would be much hotter and brighter than subsequent Population II stars and Population I stars, such as our sun, both of which fill our modern-day universe.

Derived terms

[edit]