NSF Award
1715662
Astronomers are working to understand how galaxies change throughout the history of the Universe. Our Milky Way galaxy allows the best opportunity to understand the details of a spiral galaxy's change over time. To measure changes over time the investigators will identify groups of stars, called star clusters, for which they can reliably estimate the ages. One key change is the chemical make-up of stars. For this project, the investigators will assemble a large set of star clusters to measure chemical changes with time across the galaxy. This project will serve the national interest as it promotes the progress of research in astronomy by providing a unique catalog to probe the history of the Milky Way. The investigators will run outreach activities and add to existing programs at the Monnig Meteorite Gallery in Fort Worth, TX. They will also train graduate and undergraduate students in modern data science research and analysis techniques.<br/><br/>The Open Cluster Chemical Analysis and Mapping (OCCAM) survey is a program to understand the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way by using star clusters as a key age-datable chemical and dynamical tracer population. OCCAM will measure the dynamical and chemical abundance trends as a function of age and a function of position in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. They will test whether chemical tagging can work in the Milky Way disk and if open clusters participate in radial migration. This project will use uniform photometry, cutting-edge astrometry, and chemistry from the SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2 survey. Additional optical high-resolution spectroscopy will supplement the APOGEE data, adding neutron capture elements, to create a unique catalog of up to 400 open star clusters leading to systematically measured ages, distances, reddening, and detailed abundances for more than 20 elements.
