Galaxy formation and the oldest stellar systems

星系的形成和最古老的恒星系统

• 批准号: 607-2008
• 负责人: Harris, William
• 金额: $ 5.01万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2009-01-01 至 2010-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=419289
• 关键词: Galaxy; formation; oldest; stellar; systems

One of the dominant areas of astrophysics now is to understand the era of galaxy formation: how did the galaxies that we see in the universe around us today form and grow? How is it continuing today? The major part of my program is aimed at exploring the very oldest stellar populations in nearby galaxies. These objects -- the globular clusters and halo field stars -- are the visible traces of the very earliest beginnings of their parent galaxies. My program will use a combination of imaging and spectroscopy with a wide range of telescopes to probe features of these stellar populations that are the most sensitive indicators of the formation process: their heavy-element enrichments, ages, and spatial distributions. New collaborations with theoreticians will run in parallel to generate formation models specially tuned to these features of galaxies.

现在天体物理学的主要领域之一是理解星系形成的时代：我们今天在周围的宇宙中看到的星系是如何形成和生长的？它今天是如何继续的？我的计划的主要部分是探索附近星系中最古老的恒星群。这些天体--球状星团和晕场恒星--是其母星系最早起源的可见痕迹。我的计划将结合成像和光谱学，结合广泛的望远镜来探测这些恒星群的特征，这些特征是形成过程最敏感的指标：它们的重元素丰度、年龄和空间分布。与理论家的新合作将并行进行，以产生专门针对星系的这些特征而调整的形成模型。