Dr. Paola Re Fiorentin: Toward constraints on galaxy formation scenarios: stellar properties from Galactic surveys

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     Toward constraints on galaxy formation scenarios: stellar properties from Galactic surveys

     Dr. Paola Re Fiorentin, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg & Fakulteta za matematiko in fiziko Univerze v Ljubljani

The nature of the stellar populations of the Milky Way galaxy remains an important issue for astrophysics, because it addresses the question of galaxy formation and evolution and the origin of the chemical elements. To date, however, studies have been limited by the small number of stars that could be confidently identified as members of the various populations, and also by the lack of available spectroscopy from which radial velocities and estimates of atmospheric parameters (such as effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity) could be obtained.

With new ground-based and space-born survey missions currently under way or on the immediate horizon we are in the golden age of Galactic astronomy. However, the classification of such a wide variety of objects coming available is a challenging one, which requires appropriate automated multi-dimensional data analysis techniques, and is a necessary step toward constraining scenarios of Galaxy formation. In this context, I present some of the strategies being developed to classify and parameterize objects obtained with spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) and discuss some current results.