Projeto Observacional para 2017A - SO2017A-016

Autor: Rafael Santucci
Instituição: IAG
e-mail: rafaelsantucci@usp.br

Co-autores:
Sílvia Rossi
Vinicius Placco
Timothy Beers
Julio Chaname

Título: Finding the Brightest Very and Extremely Metal-Poor Stars

Resumo: The detailed properties of very metal-poor stars provide direct information on the star formation history and chemical evolution of the Galaxy, as well as on the major astrophysical nucleosynthesis processes in operation in the early Universe. Using medium-resolution spectroscopy, we propose to measure metallicities, [Fe/H], and carbon abundance ratios, [C/Fe], for a sample of more than 1,000 bright (12 < V < 13) very metal-poor star candidates from the Best & Brightest catalog. With estimated [Fe/H] and [C/Fe] in hand, we will identify many hundreds of new carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars. The validated bright non-CEMP stars with [Fe/H] < -2.0 will be targeted for high-resolution spectroscopic snapshot surveys (e.g., with the du Pont/ECHELLE and SOAR/STELES) to dramatically increase the numbers of the rare highly r-process-element enhanced stars known, providing the key to understanding the site and nature of the astrophysical r-process.