What structures primarily house the ancient stars found within the sparse, surrounding halo region of a spiral galaxy?
Answer
Globular clusters.
The halo is described as a vast, diffuse, and generally spherical region extending far beyond the main disk, characterized by a sparsity of gas and active star formation. The stars found within this region are predominantly ancient. These venerable stellar populations are not distributed randomly but are concentrated into dense, spherical collections known specifically as globular clusters. These clusters contain some of the oldest stars in the galaxy, whose ages often date back close to the time the galaxy itself initially formed.

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