J01020100-7122208: an accreted evolved blue straggler that wasn't ejected from a supermassive black hole

Danielle de Brito-Silva*, Paula Jofré, Douglas Bourbert, Sergey E Koposov, Jose L Prieto, Keith Hawkins

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

J01020100-7122208 is a star whose origin and nature still challenges us. It was first believed to be a yellow super giant ejected from the Small Magellanic Cloud, but it was more recently claimed to be a red giant accelerated by the Milky Way’s central black hole. In order to unveil its nature, we analysed photometric, astrometric and high resolution spectroscopic observations to estimate the orbit, age, and 16 elemental abundances. Our results show that this star has a retrograde and highly-eccentric orbit, e=0.914+0.016−0.020⁠. Correspondingly, it likely crossed the Galactic disk at 550 pc from the Galactic centre. We obtained a spectroscopic mass and age of 1.09 ± 0.10 M⊙ and 4.51 ± 1.44 Gyr respectively. Its chemical composition is similar to the abundance of other retrograde halo stars. We found that the star is enriched in europium, having [Eu/Fe] = 0.93 ± 0.24, and is more metal-poor than reported in the literature, with [Fe/H] = -1.30 ± 0.10. This information was used to conclude that J01020100-7122208 is likely not a star ejected from the central black of the Milky Way or from the Small Magellanic Cloud. Instead, we propose that it is simply a halo star which was likely accreted by the Milky Way in the distant past but its mass and age suggest it is probably an evolved blue straggler.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4637-4652
Number of pages16
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume509
Issue number3
Early online date25 Nov 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Galaxy: abundances
  • Galaxy: halo
  • stars: abundances
  • stars: individual: J01020100-7122208

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