Collaborative Research: Chemical History of the Milky Way as Seen Through Open Clusters using SDSS and Gaia

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Throughout the history of the Universe galaxies change and grow. Astronomers are working to understand how the chemical make-up of the stars within galaxies change with time. By measuring how, and when, specific elements increase, the investigators will create 'chemical clocks' that trace the chemical changes during the life of the Milky Way Galaxy. This research team will measure the chemical makeup of nearly all the suitable star clusters in the Milky Way disk. This project will serve the national interest and promote the progress of research in astronomy by providing a unique catalog that can be used to probe the history of the Milky Way. The investigators will carry out mentoring and outreach activities at the University of Utah and at Texas Christian University's Monnig Meteorite Gallery. They will also train graduate and undergraduate students in modern data science research and analysis techniques. Using high-resolution spectroscopy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) and astrometry from the Gaia satellite, this research team will observe, compile, and analyze a catalog of open star clusters. This catalog will be revolutionary in its size and uniformity. Additional high-resolution optical spectroscopy will supplement the SDSS-V data with neutron-capture elemental abundances to create a unique catalog comprising up to 90% of the Gaia-confirmed open star clusters with homogeneous data, including consistently measured ages, distances, reddening, dynamics, and detailed abundances for more than 20 elements. This data set, which will be publicly released, will provide key constraints on whether chemical tagging can work in the Milky Way disk, on the participation of open clusters in radial migration, and on supernovae element yields. The catalog will be used to better understand stellar feedback over time and test cosmological models of galaxies like our Milky Way.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.