The formation and evolution of galaxies is one of the key questions
facing astronomers and cosmologists today.
How and when did the galaxies that
light our Universe assemble their various components?
What kinds of galactic mergers and cannibalistic acquistions of smaller
galaxies by their larger neighbors
occurred as the Universe evolved?
Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, offers a unique window into this process.
It is the only galaxy in which we can hope to study in detail the stars
that trace the current structure of Galaxy and serve as a fossil record of
billions of years of Galactic history.
SEGUE has been designed to explore the
- structure
- formation history
- kinematics
- dynamical evolution
- chemical evolution
- dark matter distribution
of the Milky Way. The images and spectra obtained by SEGUE
will allow astronomers to map the positions and velocities of
hundreds of thousands of stars, from faint, relatively near-by
(within about 100 pc or roughly 300 light-years) ancient stellar embers
known as white dwarfs to bright stellar giants located in the outer
reaches of the stellar halo, more than 100,000 light-years away.
Encoded within the spectral data are the composition and temperature of these
stars, vital clues for determining the age and origin of different
populations of stars within the Galaxy.
I. Galactic Structure
Halo substructure
Structure of the Galactic Disks
Dark Matter
II. Evolution and History of the Milky Way
Merger History
Chemical Evolution
Star Formation
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