The distribution of element abundances with redshift in Damped Lyα (DLA) systems can be adequately reproduced by the same model reproducing the halo and disk components of the Milky Way Galaxy at different galactocentric distances: DLA systems are well represented by normal spiral galaxies in their early evolutionary stages.

This article reviews the nature and distribution of baryonic dark matter in galaxies , with a particular emphasis on the Milky Way. The microlensing experiments towards the Large Magellanic Clouds, the Andromeda Galaxy and the bulge provide evidence on the characteristic mass and abundance of baryonic dark matter, as do direct searches for local counterparts of dark halo populations.

What the future holds for the stellar populations of the Milky Way Galaxy may (optimistically) be predicted by study of their past histories, as written in the chemical abundance distributions, angular momentum distributions, velocity dispersion tensor, ages and spatial structure of their constituent older stars.

We have gathered high resolution échelle spectra for more than two dozen high-velocity metal-poor field stars, including BD+80 245, a star previously known to have extremely low [α/Fe] abundances, as well as G4-36, a new low [α/Fe] star with unusually large [Ni/Fe]. In this kinematically selected sample, other chemically anomalous stars have also been uncovered. In addition to deriving the α-el...

Among the Milky Way satellites discovered in the past three years, TriangulumII has presented the most difficulty in revealing its dynamical status. Kirby et al. identified it as the most dark-matter-dominated galaxy known, with a mass-to-light ratio within the half-light radius of M L 360

Using analytic arguments and a suite of very high resolution (∼ 10 M⊙ per particle) cosmological hydro-dynamical simulations, we argue that high redshift, z ∼ 10, M ∼ 10 M⊙ halos, form the smallest ‘baryonic building block’ (BBB) for galaxy formation. These halos are just massive enough to efficiently form stars through atomic line cooling and to hold onto their gas in the presence of supernova...

The local stellar kinematics of the Milky Way, parameterized by the Oort constants A and B, depend on the local gradient of the rotation curve, its absolute value (Θ0), and the distance to the Galactic center (R0). The surface density of interstellar gas in the Milky Way varies non-monotonically with radius, and so contributes significantly to the local gradient of the rotation curve, and the O...

The present-day chemical and dynamical properties of the Milky Way are signatures of the Galaxy's formation and evolution. Using a self consistent chemodynamical evolution code we examine these properties within the currently favoured paradigm for galaxy formation-hierarchical clustering within a CDM cosmology. Our Tree N-body/Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code includes a self-consistent trea...