Speaker's Night: Galactic Archaeology : Uncovering the Story of Our Home with Stellar Fossils (ONLINE)

Speaker: Dr. Keith A. Hawkins, Assistant Professor and Galactic Archaeology Lab leader at The University of Texas, Austin

What are the processes that govern the formation, evolution, and assembly of galaxies across cosmic time? This question is among the most fundamental in modern astronomy, yet the answer still eludes us to this day. The Milky Way and its local group is the optimal laboratory for answering the questions of galaxy formation because it is one of the only systems to date where we can obtain detailed and precise data on the positions, motions, and chemical composition for billions of individual stars. This is the holy grail of Galactic Archaeology. Recent large-scale spectroscopic surveys have enabled a detailed observations of the Milky Way. In this talk, Dr. Hawkins will discuss his current work in Galactic archaeology and how data from these industrial surveys in stellar astronomy have been used to dissect the structure of our Galaxy. He will also explore the future of Galactic archaeology through chemical cartography.

Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Registration: Not required
Organized by: RASC, Toronto Centre
Link: https://www.youtube.com/rasctoronto/live