Where do the oldest stars, described as stellar fossils, generally reside in the Milky Way?
Answer
The Galactic Bulge and the Galactic Halo.
The oldest stars, which represent the direct descendants of the universe's earliest material, are primarily concentrated in specific, ancient neighborhoods within the galaxy's structure. These venerable stars are systematically found in the Galactic Bulge, which is the dense, spheroidal core of the galaxy, and the Galactic Halo, which is the roughly spherical volume surrounding the disk and bulge. These regions formed early in the Milky Way’s history, contrasting sharply with the thin disk, where younger, actively forming stars like our Sun reside, and which is characterized by ongoing star formation in its spiral arms.
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