Project description
Our galaxy and its formation and evolution through galactic archaeology
Understanding galaxies has been a central goal throughout the ages, with advances in astrophysics in the past 100 years allowing us to glean novel insight into their formation, growth and death. Galactic archaeology, a field focused on studying the processes and events that have shaped our own Milky Way Galaxy, is considered key to these efforts, as testified by the large amount of observational resources devoted to its study. In spite of important recent progress, one key information is still missing: precise ages of the stellar populations in our galaxy's main components, which are key to unravel their evolution. By deriving precise age information, the ERC-funded ChronoGal project will provide clear insights into key Milky Way evolution questions.
Objective
The overarching goal of ChronoGal is to unveil the sequence of events and physical processes that have shaped the Milky Way (MW) from its early assembly to the present, by providing the holy grail of Galactic Archaeology (GA): precise age information. Our Galaxy is key to study disk galaxy formation and evolution, as it can be analyzed in exceptional detail using individual stars carrying the fossil record of its entire evolution. The importance of GA is underscored by the vast resources invested in it: Gaia parallaxes, homogeneous photometry, proper motions and velocities have transformed the field, aided by a huge effort from ambitious ground-based spectroscopic surveys.
Despite spectacular recent progress, GA is nearing an impasse due to the lack of precise ages for large, unbiased stellar samples, which are critical for determining our Galaxy’s chronology. My unique expertise allows me to tackle this key issue by including color-magnitude diagram fitting in the field’s toolbox. Previously limited to studying external Local Group galaxies, this technique can finally now be applied to our Galaxy, providing unprecedentedly precise and homogeneous age-metallicity distributions for hundredths of millions of stars across all MW components. This is made possible by the accurate Gaia-based distances.
ChonoGal’s ages will provide clear answers to persistent questions on MW evolution. Crucially, ChronoGal will precisely date the disk emergence, determine the duration of the enigmatic thick disk phase, resolve the debate on the presence of intermediate-age stars in the bulge, reconstruct the major halo building blocks and pinpoint the accretion time of these fossils of high-redshift dwarf galaxies. This will clarify the impact of mergers on shaping the stellar content and morphology of disk galaxies. This ambitious and urgent project, with Gaia DR4 in 2026, will be transformative, providing the reliable and precise ages needed to advance our MW understanding.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy observational astronomy optical astronomy
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy galactic astronomy
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy astrophysics
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy stellar astronomy
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy astrochemistry
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
38205 SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.