UofT AstroTour: Galactic Archaeology with Stellar Siblings
While astronomers can understand how galaxies grow and evolve by looking out into the cosmos, the history of our own Milky Way is something of a mystery. Our solar system’s position, embedded in the disk of the Milky Way, makes it difficult to understand how our Galaxy is changing on large scales. In this month’s AstroTour, Natalie Price-Jones will explain how astronomers use measurements of nearby stars to extrapolate a complete picture of the Galaxy. This approach of using some stars to learn about the Galaxy as a whole can also be applied to understanding its history, through a process called ‘chemical tagging.’ Natalie will discuss how she uses this technique in her research to find stellar siblings, and how this can help us not only unpack the history of the Milky Way but also make predictions for its future.
About the Speaker
Natalie is a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UofT, where she studies stellar chemistry and applications of clustering algorithms to high dimensional data. When she’s not in the office she can be found doing yoga, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and honing her archery skills.
After the talk, join us for telescope observing (weather dependent), planetarium shows, and other astronomy activities! This portion of the event will be in McLennan Physical Laboratories (60 St. George St.).
Planetarium tickets will be handed out at 7:45pm outside of the lecture room on a first-come first-served basis. Any remaining planetarium tickets will be available after the talk.
Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Registration: Not required
Organized by: Graduate Astronomy Students Association. The AstroTours are generously financed by the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics and the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Location: University of Toronto, Bahen Centre for Information Technology (Room 1160), 40 St. George St., Toronto, ON, M5S 2E4
https://www.astro.utoronto.ca/astrotours/?page_id=392
https://www.facebook.com/events/1241032196046087/