Metal-Poor Stars in the Milky Way System

Abstract

Ancient, long-lived stars remain present in all components of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Born a few hundred million after the Big Bang and during a time that marked the very beginning of the chemical evolution, these stars display very low abundances of elements heavier and hydrogen and helium, making them "metal-poor". Studying the chemical composition of these stars reveals direct information about the conditions of the early universe because each of them has long preserved the local chemical signature of their individual birth gas clouds in their stellar atmosphere. There are many different types of metal-poor stars, each of them providing information on a different element production history that occurred prior to their own births. Large samples of metal-poor stars enable the reconstruction of nucleosynthesis and the chemical evolution of our Galaxy, early star formation processes, and various aspects of the assembly and evolution of the Milky Way.