The First Stars and the Chemical Enrichment of the Universe

第一批恒星的化学物质丰度具有最早时期的特征——在大爆炸和第一批天体形成期间。这个提议召集了一个世界级的团队来发现和分析银河系中大量最缺乏金属和最古老的恒星。我们将开发创新技术来分析这些天体的光谱，以获得精确的丰度——目前还无法实现。该项目将澄清我们对大爆炸核合成和第一颗超新星和超超新星的理解，银河系化学富集发生的方式，以及银河系的年龄。

The chemical abundances of the first stars bear the signature of conditions at the earliest times - during the Big Bang and the formation of the first astrophysical objects. This proposal assembles a world-class team to discover and analyze significant numbers of the most metal-poor and oldest stars in our Galaxy. We shall develop innovative techniques to analyze the spectra of these objects to obtain accurate abundances - not currently achievable. The project will clarify our understanding of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the first supernovae and hypernovae, the manner in which Galactic chemical enrichment occurred, and the age of the Galaxy.