Name: Probing the early history of the Milky Way through ancient carbon-rich stars
Start: 2025-02-19 13:40:00
End: 2025-02-19 14:05:00
Location: The Hoyle Lecture Theatre + Zoom

Probing the early history of the Milky Way through ancient carbon-rich stars

Anke Ardern-Arentsen / IoA Cambridge Fluids Network - fluids-related seminars 19 February 2025 1:40pm The Hoyle Lecture Theatre + Zoom The oldest, most metal-poor stars we find in the Milky Way today were born in pristine environments in the early Universe. These local, ancient stars contain unique clues about the First Stars and the early formation and evolution of our Galaxy. At low metallicity, many stars have been found to be enhanced in carbon, coming in two main types: some contain the fingerprints of the First Stars and others have experienced binary interaction with an evolved companion. I recently built a homogeneous sample of C-rich metal-poor stars using the Gaia XP spectra, employing a neural network and a dedicated training sample. I will present this recent paper and discuss how the change in frequency of C-rich stars with Galactic environment relates to globular clusters and clustered star formation in the early Universe.