COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Fingerprinting Stellar Halos - Tracing the Assembly of the Andromeda Galaxy with Detailed Chemical Abundances

合作研究：恒星晕指纹识别 - 用详细的化学丰度追踪仙女座星系的聚集

• 批准号: 1614081
• 负责人: Evan Kirby
• 金额: $ 37.55万
• 依托单位: California Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1614081&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; Fingerprinting; Stellar; Halos

The stars in the outermost regions of galaxies preserve a fossil record of the birth of stars and dynamics of that galaxy over its lifetime. These stellar halos extend far beyond the crowded inner regions of galaxies, where the majority of the stars reside in disks or dense spheres. Stellar halos are thought to be made of stars that formed very early on, in the galaxy's newly formed disk, as well as stars that were originally part of smaller, dwarf, galaxies that fell into the large galaxy and were torn apart. The investigators will study the physical properties of the stars in the Andromeda galaxy's stellar halo, and will determine the relative importance of these two different ways of contributing stars to a galaxy's halo. Their goal is understanding of how massive galaxies grow. They will deduce the properties of destroyed "dwarf" galaxies and their rate of forming new stars. This will give insight into the properties of dwarf galaxies that did not survive until the present day. This program will train young astronomers and introduce high school students to astronomical research.The Andromeda galaxy is the nearest large galaxy to our own. It is similar in many ways to our Milky Way galaxy, but shows evidence that it has merged with more small galaxies than the Milky Way. The investigators, along with students, will use an archive of Keck telescope spectra from previous observations of tens of thousands of stars, and will also perform new spectroscopic observations. They will use the spectra to measure the abundances of atomic elements and track the properties of the chemical environment in which the stars formed. The investigators will perform the first large-scale chemical abundance study of Andromeda's stellar halo.The investigators will recruit students to engage in summer research related to this program. They will focus their recruitment at schools that have a large fraction of students from demographic groups that are under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Completing a cutting-edge astronomical research project will both introduce these students to working in a STEM field and give them confidence that they can succeed in a STEM career.

星系最外层区域的恒星保存了恒星诞生的化石记录，以及该星系在其一生中的动态。这些恒星晕远远超出了星系拥挤的内部区域，那里的大多数恒星都居住在磁盘或致密的球体中。 恒星晕被认为是由早期形成的恒星组成的，在星系新形成的盘中，以及最初是较小的矮星系的一部分的恒星，这些星系落入大星系并被撕裂。 研究人员将研究仙女座星系恒星晕中恒星的物理特性，并确定这两种不同方式对星系晕贡献恒星的相对重要性。 他们的目标是了解大质量星系是如何成长的。 他们将推断出被摧毁的“矮”星系的性质及其形成新恒星的速度。 这将使我们深入了解直到今天才幸存下来的矮星系的性质。这个项目将培养年轻的天文学家，并向高中生介绍天文学研究。仙女座星系是离我们星系最近的大星系。它在许多方面与我们的银河系相似，但有证据表明它与比银河系更多的小星系合并。 研究人员和学生们沿着将使用凯克望远镜以前对数万颗恒星观测的光谱档案，并将进行新的光谱观测。 他们将使用光谱来测量原子元素的丰度，并跟踪恒星形成的化学环境的特性。 研究人员将对仙女座星系的恒星晕进行首次大规模的化学丰度研究。研究人员将招募学生从事与此项目相关的夏季研究。 他们将把招聘的重点放在那些有很大一部分学生来自科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）代表性不足的人口群体的学校。 完成一个尖端的天文学研究项目将向这些学生介绍在STEM领域工作，并让他们相信他们可以在STEM职业生涯中取得成功。