Physics & Engineering Physics Colloquium

Join us for a presentation from Ben Coco, a physics student in Fordham’s Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, as he presents “Galactic Archaeology at Notre Dame” and “We are all star stuff, but what about the stuff stars can’t make?”

All of the elements through iron can be formed in stars, but what about the heavier elements? This is where galactic archaeology comes in, the field of research on how the Milky Way formed. Globular clusters are regions of space that are densely filled with stars. The heavier elements are known as neutron capture elements and currently only have one confirmed source, binary-neutron star mergers. However, in a recently submitted paper to The Astrophysical Journal, Evan Kirby found a relationship in globular cluster M92 that showed there has to be a second source of neutron capture elements.

Coco’s research over the summer was in globular cluster M15 to investigate the origins of neutron capture elements to see if we would confirm this relationship or learn that globular cluster formation is unique to each globular cluster.