Charlie ConroyProfessor of Astronomy, Harvard University
Ssenior member of the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA)
I will review ongoing work aimed at understanding when and how the major structural components of our Galaxy came into place. The combination of Gaia DR2 and spectroscopic data has revealed that the stellar halo contains a remarkable degree of structure, and appears to have formed partially by dynamical processes within the disk, and partially from accreted dwarf galaxies. Our simulations of the stellar disk predict that the clustered nature of star formation imprints a high degree of structure in phase+chemistry space. I will discuss the prospects for unraveling the history of the disk with the combination of Gaia and spectroscopic surveys.
