Discovery of an Accreted Stellar System within the Globular Cluster ω Centauri

Recent wide-field photometric surveys (Lee et al.; Pancino et al.) have shown the existence of a previously unknown metal-rich ([Fe/H] ≃ -0.6) stellar population in the galactic globular cluster ω Centauri. The discovery of this new component, which comprises only a small percentage (~5%) of the entire cluster population, has added a new piece to the already puzzling picture of the star formation and chemical evolution of this stellar system. In this Letter, we show that stars belonging to the newly discovered metal-rich population have a coherent bulk motion with respect to the other cluster stars, thus demonstrating that they formed in an independent self-gravitating stellar system. This is the first clear-cut evidence that extreme metal-rich stars were part of a small stellar system (a satellite of ω Centauri?) that has been accreted by the main body of the cluster. In this case, we are witnessing an in vivo example of hierarchical merging on the subgalactic scale.