Speaker: Georges Kordopatis, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK

Title: Galactic archaeology: unraveling the thick disc formation history

Location: 1520-732

Abstract:
Galactic archaeology aims to understand the sequence of events that have taken place during the history of the Milky Way, in order to understand how our Galaxy was formed and evolved. The investigation is done by analysing fossil records (metallicity and orbits) of stellar populations old enough to probe the initial formation stages of the Milky Way.
In this talk I will review the recent progress in our understanding of the formation of the thick disc, a key feature that is though to be a snap-frozen relic of the Milky Way 10 Gyr ago. Based on the large spectroscopic surveys RAVE (data-release 4: ~500,000 spectra) and Gaia-ESO (DR1:~10,000 stars) I will show how the observations manage to constrain the formation mechanisms of the thick disc, requiring both internal galactic evolution and external accretion of satellite galaxies.