Research Research projects Nearby probes of the distant halo of the Milky Way: sub-dwarf M stars We have recently demonstrated a novel technique to recover sub-dwarf M stars from the combination of VISTA infra-red and SkyMapper photometry. school Student intakeThis project is open for Honours and PhD students label Research theme Research themes Galactic archaeology traffic Project status Project status Current Content navigation toc About Image We have recently demonstrated a novel technique to recover sub-dwarf M stars from the combination of VISTA infra-red and SkyMapper photometry. Sub-dwarf M stars are stars that formed ~10-13 billion years ago in the early stages of formation of the Galaxy. Their motions tell us about the mechanism of galaxy formation. In this project, we seek to develop a large sample of objects to perform the first utilisation of these stars. The project can be explored at a number of levels: object detection and characterisation (which would involve learning how to perform photometry, use of SkyMapper data, the use of spectra from the ANU 2.3m telescope); to an understanding of the local Milky Way halo properties (for PhD)
