Abstract

We present spectra of six metal-poor stars in two of the ultra-faint dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way (MW), Ursa Major II, and Coma Berenices obtained with the Keck/High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES). These observations include the first high-resolution spectroscopic observations of extremely metal-poor ([Fe/H] -3.0. Not only are our results broadly consistent with a galaxy formation model that predicts that massive dwarf galaxies are the source of the metal-rich component ([Fe/H]> - 2.5) of the MW halo, but they also suggest that the faintest known dwarfs may be the primary contributors to the metal-poor end of the MW halo metallicity distribution.« less

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