Descrizione del progetto
L’evoluzione della Via Lattea grazie a informazioni dettagliate sulle galassie nane
La Via Lattea offre preziose informazioni sulla formazione e l’evoluzione della galassia nel corso del tempo cosmico. Questi resti forniscono l’opportunità di uno studio dettagliato, svelando indizi sulle stelle originarie, sull’accumulo di elementi chimici nell’universo, sulla materia oscura e sulla formazione gerarchica delle galassie. In questo contesto, il progetto TREASURES, finanziato dal CER, massimizzerà il potenziale scientifico dell’indagine su larga scala nota come 4DWARFS. Il progetto mira a fornire informazioni su età stellare, velocità radiali e abbondanze chimiche per oltre 130 000 stelle, ivi incluse conoscenze su galassie nane e flussi stellari, il che amplierà la nostra comprensione di tali aspetti in modo esponenziale. L’indagine 4DWARFS raccoglierà spettri ad alta qualità di singole stelle in quasi 50 galassie nane e molteplici flussi stellari da sistemi in fase di perturbazione.
Obiettivo
The Milky Way is an environment rich with satellite galaxies, stellar streams and accreted systems. Encoded in these structures is the formation and evolution of the Galaxy through cosmic time. Fortunately, these nearby relics can be studied in extraordinary detail – star by star – revealing the properties of the first stars, the build-up of chemical elements in the Universe, the nature of dark matter, and hierarchical galaxy formation.
To unlock these treasure troves of hidden information, I designed a large-scale survey: 4DWARFS (PI: Skúladóttir, 520,000 fibre hours) that after a very competitive 2-year selection has now been accepted as a 5-year 4MOST survey, starting in 2024. 4DWARFS will collect high-quality spectra of individual stars in close to 50 dwarf galaxies, and dozens of stellar streams from systems currently undergoing disruption.
The goal of TREASURES is to execute and exploit this large 4DWARFS survey to its highest scientific potential. TREASURES will provide the community with stellar ages, radial velocities and chemical abundances for over 130,000 stars, and thus increase the number of stars with detailed abundance information in dwarf galaxies and streams by several orders of magnitude, ensuring the far-reaching impact of this project. Furthermore, TREASURES will use state-of-the-art models to contrast these new large data against theory, and put in context with the Milky Way.
Through an ambitious combination of modelling and data of unprecedented magnitude and completeness TREASURES will quantify and put fundamental constraints on:
(I) The properties of the first stars (mass and energy distributions)
(II) The origin of the chemical elements (physics of stars, supernovae and neutron star mergers)
(III) Hierarchical galaxy formation at the smallest mass scales, and structure of dark matter halos
TREASURES will thus paint a comprehensive picture of the formation and evolution of the Milky Way environment, from cosmic dawn until the present day.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomystellar astronomyneutron stars
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyastrophysicsdark matter
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyphysical cosmologygalaxy evolution
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomystellar astronomysupernova
Parole chiave
- Local group
- dwarf galaxies
- ultra faint dwarf galaxies
- dwarf spheroidal galaxies
- stellar streams
- accreted systems
- galaxy mergers
- dark matter
- chemical evolution
- chemical abundances
- nucleosynthesis
- first stars
- supernovae
- supernovae type Ia
- neutron star mergers
- asymptotic giant branch stars
- stellar physics
- stellar ages
- kinematics
- dynamics
- hierarchical galaxy formation
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
50121 Florence
Italia