The Gaia-ESO Milky Way Survey

Objetivo

Understanding how galaxies actually form and evolve within our dark matter and dark energy dominated [ɅCDM] universe continues to be an enormous challenge. State of the art simulations of the aggregation of cold dark matter under its own gravitational influence suggest that galaxies grow from very smooth initial conditions through a sequence of merger and accretion events. However, theoretical models of galaxy formation, which necessarily involve modelling star formation and stellar evolution, the creation and dispersal of the chemical elements, the formation and energy output of massive black holes, and the response of gas to radiation and supernova shock waves, among much more, rely more heavily on phenomenological models than on a detailed understanding of physical theory. Thus, these models require calibration with well-studied (nearby) test cases of galaxies which we can study in detail, specifically our own Milky Way Galaxy.
The Gaia-ESO Survey is Europe’s major ground-based project to meet this scientific challenge.
The Gaia-ESO Survey, which began data-taking in January 2012, has been allocated 300nights of telescope time over five years using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT-UT2) with its premier multi-object spectrograph, FLAMES. The project will obtain high-quality spectroscopy of some 100,000 faint stars, systematically covering all the major components of the Milky Way. This will provide the first homogeneous overview of the distributions of kinematics and chemical elemental abundances in the Galaxy. With well-defined samples the Survey will quantify the kinematic+ multi-chemical element abundance distribution functions of the bulge, the thick disk, the thin disc, and the halo stellar components.
This proposal is to provide the core support team for the Co-Principal Investigator of the Gaia-ESO Survey with responsibility for the Milky Way Survey.

Ámbito científico

Régimen de financiación

ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant

Institución de acogida

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Aportación de la UE

€ 2 499 978,00

Dirección

TRINITY LANE THE OLD SCHOOLS
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Reino Unido

Región

East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC

Tipo de actividad

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Contacto administrativo

Renata Schaeffer (Ms.)

Investigador principal

Gerard Francis Gilmore (Prof.)

Enlaces

Contactar con la organización Sitio web

Coste total

Sin datos

Beneficiarios (1)