Professor Joseph Silk explains what the relics of the earliest universe can tell us about our past and our future: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology
The history of our galaxy will be addressed by a local approach that is in essence the search for fossils. To probe back in time, one can look in our vicinity for the oldest stars. This motivates exploration of the field of galactic archaeology where one effectively digs into the past. Stars that formed long before our Sun are different; they are deprived of most heavy elements. Their orbits and their chemical signatures trace the evolution of the galaxy. We will learn how our galaxy formed by the assembly of diverse fragments of star-forming clouds.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology
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