Origin of the Elements of Life

27 May 2009

Professor Timothy C. Beers

Human beings are, by nature, curious about their beginnings. Often, such questions of "how we came to be" are confined to the origins of modern society, or the development of human beings as a species. In this lecture, Professor Timothy Beers will endeavour to take the discussion all the way back to the VERY beginning, to the origin of the primary elements required to construct life as we know it -- carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and oxygen (O).

Over the past few decades, astronomers and physicists have outlined plausible pathways for the astrophysical production of these elements (and others), from the explosive burning associated with massive stars and the slower contributions of lower-mass stars like the Sun over the history of the Universe. Professor Beers explains how the chemical signatures which can be read in the spectra of stars that are still shining today have provided the clues needed to reconstruct this remarkable story, and how future observations (many of which involve the work of Australian astronomers) will be used to fill out the rich detail of this map of creation.

Broad Topics: Physical Science

Sub-topics: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Areas: ANU College of Science

Professor Timothy Beers is a pioneer and a world-leader in the identification and analysis of metal-poor halo stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, and what they tell us about conditions at the earliest times - the Big Bang, formation of the first stars and galaxies, and of the Milky Way itself. This field of astrophysics has expanded greatly during the last decade, due in part to his numerous important contributions. He led the so-called HK survey, in which about 2000 stars with metallicity less than 1% of the Sun, and over 100 stars with a metallicity of less than 1/1000 of the Sun were found. Detailed abundance analyses of these by means of high-resolution spectroscopy revealed important insights into the earliest phases of chemical enrichment of the Universe, and the formation of the Milky Way.

Professor Beers is a Visiting Fellow at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, ANU College of Physical Sciences and University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, Michigan State University.

Presented by the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, this lecture was part of the ANU Visiting Fellows Series.

Part of the Toyota-ANU Public Lecture Series 2009