A leading astronomer takes readers behind the scenes of the thrilling science of stellar archaeologyAstronomers study the oldest observable stars in the universe in much the same way archaeologists study ancient artifacts on Earth. Anna Frebel takes readers into the far-flung depths of space and time to provide a gripping firsthand account of the cutting-edge science of stellar archaeology. Weaving the latest findings in astronomy with her own compelling insights as one of the world's leading researchers in the field, she explains how sections of the night sky are "excavated" in the hunt for these extremely rare, 13-billion-year-old relic stars and how this astonishing quest is revealing tantalizing new details about the origins and evolution of the cosmos. Along the way, Frebel recounts her own stories of discovery, offering an insider's perspective on this exciting frontier of science.

Preface xiAn Introductory Remark xv
1 What Is Stellar Archaeology? 1
1.1 The First Minutes after the Big Bang 2
1.2 Stellar Archaeology 7
2 Two Centuries of Pursuing Stars 10
2.1 First Glimpses of Stellar Rainbows 11
2.2 Decoding Starlight 16
2.3 A New Perspective of the Cosmos 22
2.4 Looking into the Hearts of Stars 29
2.5 Modern Alchemy 35
2.6 The Foundation of Cosmology 38
2.7 The Origin of the Elements 44
3 S tars, Stars, More Stars 51
3.1 The Cycle of Matter in the Universe 51
3.2 Astronomers and Their Metals 55
3.3 Element Nucleosynthesis in the Cosmic Kitchen 59
3.4 Stellar Diversity 73
4 Stellar Evolution-From Birth to Death 78
4.1 Sorting Stars 78
4.2 A Protostar Forms 85
4.3 The Evolution of a Low-Mass Star 88
4.4 The Evolution of a Massive Star 93
4.5 Supernovae and Supernova Remnants 95
4.6 Preliminary Thoughts about Working with Metal-Poor Stars 102
5 Neutron-Capture Processes and the Heaviest Elements 107
5.1 How Neon Lamps Relate to Giant Stars-Element Synthesis in the S-Process 109
5.2 Thorium, Uranium, and R-Process Element Synthesis 114
5.3 Cosmo-Chronometry: The Oldest Stars 120
5.4 Nuclear Astrophysics 128
6 Welcome to Our Milky Way 130
6.1 A Milky Way above Us 130
6.2 The Milky Way's Structure 133
6.3 Dwarf Galaxies 139
6.4 Star Clusters 145
6.5 Naming Stars 151
7 Tales Told by Light 155
7.1 A Little Lexicon of Light 156
7.2 Spectroscopy-Deciphering Starlight 160
7.3 Element Abundance Analyses of Stars 166
7.4 The Largest Telescopes in the World 173
7.5 Three Steps toward Success 180
7.6 Observations with MIKE 186
8 Let's Go Ob serve Some Stars! 192
8.1 Going Stargazing 192
8.2 Good-Weather Beer 197
8.3 A Sunset 198
8.4 The Observa-thon 201
8.5 One Hundred and Five Stars per Night 203
8.6 Computers, Computers . . . 205
8.7 Tested by Fire 207
9 The Chemical Evolution of the Early Universe 210
9.1 The First Stars in the Universe 210
9.2 The Family of Metal-Poor Stars 217
9.3 The Most Iron-Poor Stars 222
9.4 The Cosmic Chemical Evolution 227
10 Finding the Oldest Stars 241
10.1 Pursuing Metal-Poor Stars 241
10.2 Bright Metal-Poor Stars 248
10.3 Mt. Stromlo Succumbs to Bushfires 252
10.4 The Discovery of a Record-Breaking Most Iron-Poor Star 257
10.5 The Astronomical Community 264
11 A t the End of a Cosmic Journey 267
11.1 Cosmological Simulations 267
11.2 Where Do Metal-Poor Stars Come From? 273
11.3 Expectations of Future Surveys 279
11.4 The Next Generation of Giant Telescopes 282
11.5 Little Diamonds in the Sky 285
Further Reading 287
Index 289