Description:

Title: Galactic Archaeology: Using Large-Scale Surveys to Understand our Cosmic Home

Abstract : Our universe it made up of many billions of galaxies, yet we are still trying to figure out how they form, evolve, and assemble themselves over cosmic. This question of galaxy formation and assembly is among the most fundamental in modern astronomy yet the answer still eludes us to this day. The Milky Way is an optimal laboratory for answering the questions of galaxy formation and assembly because it is one of the only systems to date where we can obtain detailed and precise data on the positions motions and chemical composition for billions of individual stars. Using our Galaxy and large spectroscopic, astrometric, and photometric surveys as a sandbox for exploring galaxy formation and assembly is the essence of Galactic archaeology.  In this talk, we walk through what my group has been doing to better understand the structure and assembly of our Galaxy and using  state-of-the-art data large scale missions to chart the Milky Way.