Specroscopy of Massive Stars

Some few hundred million years after the Big Bang the Universe lit-up by the formation of the First Stars, which are thought to have been very massive owing to their pristine chemistry. Despite their key role in setting the stage for the subsequent Cosmic chemistry, we know surprisingly little about the properties of the first few stellar generations.

The goal of this project is to utilize ongoing and new large-scale spectroscopic surveys (HST ULLYSES, X-Shooting ULLYSES at ESO's VLT in Chile, and WEAVE on the island of La Palma) to determine the fundamental stellar properties, constrain the evolution of massive stars, and assess the final mass before collapsing into a Black Hole.