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SUMMARY:Dissecting Galaxies with the Brightest Stars in the Universe - Rol
 f Kudritzki\, Institute for Astronomy\, University of Hawaii at Manoa
DTSTART:20110127T163000Z
DTEND:20110127T173000Z
UID:TALK28036@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:George Becker
DESCRIPTION:The determination of the chemical composition and distances of
  galaxies is\ncrucial for constraining the theory of galaxy formation and 
 evolution in a\ndark energy and cold dark matter dominated universe. Howev
 er\, the standard\ntechniques to obtain information about the chemical com
 position and\ndistances of star forming galaxies are subject to large syst
 ematic\nuncertainties which are poorly understood. As an alternative\, I i
 ntroduce a\nnew method\, which uses "supergiant stars"\, the brightest sta
 rs in the\nuniverse\, as individual sources of information about galaxies.
  I will\npresent most recent results on the quantitative spectral analysis
  of such\nobjects in galaxies beyond the Local Group based on medium and l
 ow\nresolution spectra obtained with the ESO VLT and the Keck telescopes o
 n\nMauna Kea. I will also discuss the perspectives of future work using th
 e\ngiant ground-based telescopes of the next generation such as the TMT on
 \nMauna Kea and the European-ELT.
LOCATION:Sackler Lecture Theatre\, IoA (tea at 4:00 pm)
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