Talk title and abstract coming soon.

Bio: Prof. Cunningham’s research uses observations and simulations of the Milky Way halo to address questions that are fundamental to understanding galaxies and dark matter. Halo stars are luminous tracers of the MW’s DM halo and mass assembly, and are relics of disrupted dwarf galaxies that did not survive until present day. The properties of stellar halos are determined by the nature of dark matter as well as the conditions of galaxy formation in the early universe. Professor Cunningham’s research program has two main branches: 1) mapping the DM distribution and disequilibrium in the MW and 2) using halo stars to study the faint, low-mass galaxies that were consumed by the MW during its formation. (Credit: https://www.bu.edu/astronomy/profile/emily-cunningham/)