AST-9619632 Dr. Edward Olszewski, at the University of Arizona, Dr. Mario Mateo, at the University of Michigan, and Dr. Heather Morrison, at Case Western Reserve University will carry out a collaborative project to map the outer halo of the Milky Way to search for possible moving groups of stars which are likely remnants of accretion of smaller galaxies by the Milky Way. The goal is to obtain a clearer understanding of the merger history of our Galaxy, by determining the content of the halo that can be attributed to accretion from small, nearby, interacting galaxies. This is a very ambitious observational project that will be carried out on telescopes in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
