Stellar and Galactic Archaeology

Dear Colleagues,

We have entered the era of large stellar surveys, where the observation and study of a sizeable number of individual stars in the Milky Way enables us to access different phases of its formation and evolution.

This endeavour is driven by new space and ground-based projects: multi-object spectroscopy, wide-field imaging and time-domain astronomy are already changing our understanding of stars, and of the Galaxy as a whole. Bridging between stellar and Galactic astronomy, this exciting new frontier is dubbed Galactic Archaeology; owing to their long life-times, late-type stars are its main characters.

A new picture of stellar populations in the Galaxy is already emerging, along with outstanding questions. Among those: what is the nature and realm of different Galactic components? Which are the processes relevant in the build-up of the Milky Way, and which diagnostics reveal them? Which are the most appropriate statistical tools to ensure robust inference from large surveys? What is the interplay between the chemistry and kinematics of stars? How do we uncover the chemical fingerprints of stars, and what can we learn from them? Are late-type stars real fossils from different epochs of the formation of the Galaxy? Can we reliably age-date what we observe? What is the chemical enrichment and star formation history of the Galaxy? How can we relate what we learn locally from stars to the bigger picture of galaxy formation, thus, linking near and far-field cosmology?

This Special Issue of Galaxies is intended to address some of these questions. Papers focusing on specific aspects, as well as review papers are most welcome.

Dr. Luca Casagrande
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Galaxies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.