Monday, March 08, 2010 at 4:00 PM

JILA Auditorium

Raja Guhathakurta, Univ Calif Santa Cruz

"The M31 Splash Survey and Progressive Stages of Galaxy Formation"

Abstract:

Our group has been leading a spectroscopic survey of tens of thousands of red giant stars in our neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), and its dwarf satellite galaxies. The Keck/DEIMOS stellar spectra yield information on membership, radial velocity, and chemical abundance patterns. The M31 system is an excellent testbed for studying the interplay among the dynamical, assembly, star-formation, and chemical-enrichment histories of the different structural subcomponents of M31 -- its outer halo, inner spheroid, disk, and the past and present satellite populations -- in the context of the Lambda-CDM hierarchical galaxy formation paradigm. I will briefly discuss the planned capabilities of the Thirty-Meter Telescope and the contributions it is expected to make in this area of astrophysics.

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