Lecture on May 18, Friday morning at 10:00

Speaker: Dr. Jeff Carlin　 

(Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY)

Title: Stellar Streams and Substructures as Probes of the Milky Way and its Merging History

Place and time: Third floor, Large Conference Room,  May 18, 10:00AM

Abstract:

In recent years, the number of known stellar tidal streams and substructures in the Milky Way has increased dramatically, leading to a resurgence in the field that has become known as "Galactic archaeology." In this talk, I will discuss what the discovery and mapping of these remnants of late-infalling satellites (dwarf galaxies or globular clusters) has taught us about hierarchical galaxy formation on Milky Way scales. I will talk about what can be learned about the underlying (dark) matter distribution of the Galactic halo from kinematical measurements of stars in these substructures, and detail a few recent results. Many new and upcoming photometric, astrometric, and spectroscopic surveys promise to reveal a wealth of new Milky Way substructures.