University Of Arizona Astronomy

The University of Arizona in Tucson Arizona

Event:		"The First Gigayear of the Galaxy"
Event Date/Time:		March 11, 2004 4:00 pm
Location:		Steward Observatory - Room N210
Speaker:		Dr. Jon Fulbright
Institution:		Carnegie Institutes of Washington, The Observatories
Subject(s):		Steward/NOAO Colloquium
Contact:		Jill Bechtold email: jbechtold@as.arizona.edu phone: 621-6533
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Event Description Posted: January 29, 2004 1:52 pm		The First Gigayear of the Galaxy Abundance studies of stellar populations can provide powerful insights into galactic evolution. In this talk, I will present new results based on studies of some of the oldest populations in the Galaxy. I will first present results from a new survey with Andy McWilliam and Mike Rich based on new Keck/HIRES spectra of Baade's Window K giants. Our results show that the very old, very metal-rich stars observed in the bulge were formed out of material enriched by a rapid burst of very massive stars. In addition, I will present results from surveys of very old metal-poor field and globular cluster stars. These surveys show that at the very earliest times and and lowest metallicities there were strong gradients in the alpha-element enhancements as a function of (present) position within the Galaxy out to 100 kpc.