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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto
The star that should not exist

Paolo Molaro
INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste

Abstract
Extreme metal-poor stars are records of the chemical composition of the young Galaxy and provide information on the early chemical evolution in the Universe and on the type of the first stars. They are very rare and current theories predict the existence of a threshold in metallicity to form low mass stars that could be observed today. We developed an automatic procedure to select metal poor candidates from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Some of these were observed during the GTO of the spectrograph X-Shooter and their metallicity confirmed. We also succeeded in finding out a record metal-poor star. Some of the implications of this discovery will be discussed.

21 November 2012, 13:30

Centro de Astrofísica
Rua das Estrelas
4150-762 Porto

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

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