August 9, 2019 8-10PM

Event Type: Lecture and Stargazing
Title: Galactic Archaeology: Digging Through the Remnants of Galaxies
Lecturer: Gina Duggan
Position: Graduate Student
Institution:Caltech
Abstract:
The Universe contains over 200 billion galaxies and how these galaxies are created, grow, change, and die impacts all other areas of astronomy. However, a galaxy changes so slowly that we will never observe them change in our lifetime. How can we possibly study how galaxies evolve when we cannot watch any of this occur? Galactic Archaeology! I will explain how “digging” through the chemicals contained in young and old stars currently alive in a galaxy enables you to picture how that galaxy has grown since its birth. We will also discuss the topic of my thesis: how Galactic Archaeology can even be used to inform what astrophysical source creates heavy elements, such as gold.