Asteroseismology is a promising tool to study Galactic structure and evolution because it can probe the ages of stars. Earlier attempts comparing seismic data from the Kepler satellite with predictions from Galaxy models found that the models predicted more low-mass stars compared to the observed distribution of masses. It was unclear if the mismatch was due to inaccuracies in the Galactic models, or the unknown aspects of the selection function of the stars. Using new data from the K2 mission, which has a well-defined selection function, we find that an old metal-poor thick disc, as used in previous Galactic models, is incompatible with the asteroseismic information. We show that spectroscopic measurements of [Fe/H] and [α/Fe] elemental abundances from the GALAH survey indicate a mean metallicity of log(Z/Z ) = −0.16 for the thick disc. Here Z is the effective solar-scaled metallicity, which is a function of [Fe/H] and [α/Fe]. With the revised disc metallicities, for the first time, the theoretically predicted distribution of seismic masses show excellent agreement with the observed distribution of masses. This provides an indirect verification of the asteroseismic mass scaling relation is good to within five percent. Using an importance-sampling framework that takes the selection function into account, we fit a population synthesis model of the Galaxy to the observed seismic and spectroscopic data. Assuming the asteroseismic scaling relations are correct, we estimate the mean age of the thick disc to be about 10 Gyr, in agreement with the traditional idea of an old α-enhanced thick disc.

Accurate and precise radius estimates of transiting exoplanets are critical for understanding their compositions and formation mechanisms. To know the planet, we must know the host star in as much detail as possible. We present first results from the K2-HERMES project, which uses the HERMES multi-object spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope to obtain R∼28,000 spectra of up to 360 stars in one exposure. This ongoing project aims to derive self-consistent spectroscopic parameters for about half of K2 target stars. We present complete stellar parameters and isochrone-derived masses and radii for 46 stars hosting 57 K2 candidate planets in Campaigns 1-3. Our revised hoststar radii cast severe doubt on three candidate planets: EPIC 201407812.01, EPIC 203070421.01, and EPIC 202843107.01, all of which now have inferred radii well in excess of the largest known inflated Jovian planets.

We explore the fundamental relations governing the radial and vertical velocity dispersions of stars in the Milky Way, from combined studies of complementary surveys including GALAH, LAMOST, APOGEE, the NASA Kepler and K2 missions, and Gaia DR2. We find that different stellar samples, even though they target different tracer populations and employ a variety of age estimation techniques, follow the same set of fundamental relations. We provide the clearest evidence to date that, in addition to the well-known dependence on stellar age, the velocity dispersions of stars depend on orbital angular momentum Lz, metallicity and height above the plane |z|, and are well described by a multiplicatively separable functional form. The dispersions have a power-law dependence on age with exponents of 0.441±0.007 and 0.251±0.006 for σz and σR respectively, and the power law is valid even for the oldest stars. For the solar neighborhood stars, the apparent break in the power law for older stars, as seen in previous studies, is due to the anti-correlation of Lz with age. The dispersions decrease with increasing Lz until we reach the Sun’s orbital angular momentum, after which σz increases (implying flaring in the outer disc) while σR flattens. For a given age, the dispersions increase with decreasing metallicity, suggesting that the dispersions increase with birth radius. The dispersions also increase linearly with |z|. The same set of relations that work in the solar neighborhood also work for stars between 3 < R/kpc < 20. Finally, the high-[α/Fe] stars follow the same relations as the low-[α/Fe] stars.

We present the velocity dispersion measurements of four massive ∼10 11 M e quiescent galaxies at 3.2 < z < 3.7 based on deep H and K-band spectra using the Keck/MOSFIRE near-infrared spectrograph. We find high velocity dispersions of order σ e ∼250 km s −1 based on strong Balmer absorption lines, and we combine these with size measurements based on HST/WFC3 F160W imaging to infer dynamical masses. The velocity dispersions are broadly consistent with the high stellar masses and small sizes. Together with evidence for quiescent stellar populations, the spectra confirm the existence of a population of massive galaxies that formed rapidly and quenched in the early universe z > 4. Investigating the evolution at constant velocity dispersion between z ∼3.5 and z ∼2, we find a large increase in effective radius 0.35 ± 0.12 dex and in dynamical-to-stellar mass ratio ( ) á ñ M M log dyn * of 0.33 ± 0.08 dex, with low expected contribution from dark matter. The dynamical masses for our z ∼3.5 sample are consistent with the stellar masses for a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF), with the ratio0.13 0.10 dyn Ch * dex suggesting an IMF lighter than Salpeter may be common for massive quiescent galaxies at z > 3. This is surprising in light of the Salpeter or heavier IMFs found for high velocity dispersion galaxies at z ∼2 and cores of present-day ellipticals, which these galaxies are thought to evolve into. Future imaging and spectroscopic observations with resolved kinematics using the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could rule out potential systematics from rotation and confirm these results.