The thin disk is a structural component of

spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point. It is a subtype of whorled patterns, a broad group that also includes concentric objects. Two-dimensional A two-dimension ...

and S0-type galaxies, composed of

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

s, gas and

dust Dust is made of particle size, fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil lifted by wind (an aeolian processes, aeolian process), Types of volcan ...

. It is the main non-centre (e.g. galactic bulge) density of such matter. That of the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

is thought to have a

scale height In atmospheric, earth, and planetary sciences, a scale height, usually denoted by the capital letter ''H'', is a distance ( vertical or radial) over which a physical quantity decreases by a factor of e (the base of natural logarithms, approx ...

of around in the vertical axis perpendicular to the disk, and a scale length of around in the horizontal axis, in the direction of the radius. For comparison, the Sun is out from the center. The thin disk contributes about 85% of the stars in the Galactic plane and 95% of the total disk stars. It can be set apart from the

thick disk The thick disk is one of the structural components of about 2/3 of all disk galaxies, including the Milky Way. It was discovered first in external edge-on galaxies. Soon after, it was proposed as a distinct galactic structure in the Milky Way, di ...

of a galaxy since the latter is composed of older population stars created at an earlier stage of the galaxy formation and thus has fewer heavy elements. Stars in the thin disk, on the other hand, are created as a result of gas accretion at the later stages of a galaxy formation and are on average more metal-rich. The thin disk contains stars with a wide range of ages and may be divided into a series of sub-populations of increasing age. Notwithstanding, it is considered to be considerably younger than the thick disk. Based upon the emerging science of

nucleocosmochronology Nucleocosmochronology, or nuclear cosmochronology, is a technique used to determine timescales for astrophysics, astrophysical objects and events based on observed ratios of radioactive heavy elements and their decay products. It is similar in ma ...

, the Galactic thin disk of the Milky Way is estimated to have been formed 8.8 ± 1.7 billion years ago. It may have collided with a smaller satellite galaxy, causing the stars in the thin disk to be shaken up and creating the thick disk, while the gas would have settled into the galactic plane and reformed the thin disk.

External links

Astronomers identify thick disc of older stars in nearby Andromeda galaxy

References

{{Galaxy Galaxies

See also

External links

References