Astronomy and Space Physics

[CANCELLED] Ben Lowe (Australian National University): Tracing the Early Milky Way through Spectroscopy of Metal-Poor Stars

Name: [CANCELLED] Ben Lowe (Australian National University): Tracing the Early Milky Way through Spectroscopy of Metal-Poor Stars
Start: 2025-10-02T14:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-10-02T15:00:00+02:00
Location: No location set

Thursday 2 Oct 2025, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Stockholm

Description

Title: Tracing the Early Milky Way through Spectroscopy of Metal-Poor Stars
Speaker: Ben Lowe
Affiliation: Australian National University
Time: Thursday 2 October 2025, 1400 to 1500
Location: 80127

Abstract:

As some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way, metal-poor stars provide valuable insights into the galaxy’s earliest stages and the Universe’s first stars. Leveraging Gaia DR3, we expanded the metal-poor star sample by observing ~6000 stars near the Galactic plane with 2dF+AAOmega, then performed detailed chemical analyses on 16 of these stars using the X-Shooter spectrograph. Here, I will discuss our key findings from both studies, include observational evidence of the Galactic disk’s spin-up, and two metal-poor stars displaying chemical abundances never seen before, underscoring the remarkable diversity present in early stellar populations.