Francesca Primas
European Southern Observatory
Garching bei München
Abundances, abundances, and still more abundances . . .
the chemical evolution of the Galaxy and beyond
Galactic chemical evolution results from nucleosynthesis occurring in
many generations of stars. Abundances in very metal-poor stars provide
one of the main diagnostic tools to probe the earliest phases of
element production. Indeed, most of the recent observational efforts
are devoted to this type of studies. However, the coming on-line of
new multiplex facilities on the largest ground-based telescopes in the
world have allowed us for the first time to peek over our Galaxy's
"shoulders" and gain important insights into the chemical history of
Local Group galaxies. Here, I will review on-going observational
efforts and their achievements: are we making progress or are we
getting more confused?
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