Seminars

Astronomy seminar - Massive stars: From the VLT to the ELTs

Massive stars play a key role in the dynamical and chemical evolution of star-forming galaxies, via their intense stellar winds, UV radiation fields, and explosive deaths. To develop realistic tools to analyse integrated-light observations of distant galaxies, we first need to calibrate the models via study of stars closer to home.  To this end, I will summarise some key results from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey, which has obtained multi-epoch spectroscopy of the massive-star population of 30 Doradus, the richest stellar nursery in the Local Group. Looking ahead, I will also discuss the exciting potential of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will enable direct abundance estimates for individual stars in galaxies across a large volume of the local Universe.