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Sky Talk-What Ancient Stars Tell Us About the Universe

Date:
-
Location:
155 Chem-Phys Bldg
Speaker(s) / Presenter(s):
Ron Wilhelm, Dept of Physics & Astronomy, University of Kentucky

What Ancient Stars Tell Us about the Universe

There are stars in our universe that are nearly as old as the universe itself. These stars allow us to explore what the universe was like when it was less than 1 billion years old. The study of ancient stars is often called stellar archeology because it is possible to use them to piece together information about what the universe was like at very early times and how it changed as time went by.

In my talk I will discuss how we recognize these ancient stars among the enormous number of younger stars, like the Sun. I will also dis-cuss how the proportion of elements in ancient stars allows us to understand how the elements in our everyday world came into being. Finally I will discuss how the positions and motions of these stars within our Milky Way Galaxy give clues as to how galaxies formed.