Speaker: Dr. Mitchell Revalski

Postdoctoral Researcher

Space Telescope Science Institute
 

Heavy Metal: How the smallest galaxies rock the life cycle of elements in our Universe.

In astronomy, chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are often referred to as metals because they formed after the Big Bang. These include carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and other fundamental building blocks that are required for life to exist. These metals are forged over time in the hot cores of massive stars, or produced rapidly through the spectacular deaths of stars as novae and supernovae. While massive galaxies shine brightly across the cosmos, there are many more small galaxies that may play the most important role in the life cycle of these metals. What quantity of metals are contained in the smallest galaxies? How does it change over billions of years as metals flow through galaxies? I will share how we are tackling these questions using new extremely deep observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories.