Previous
abstract 
Next
abstract
Session 13 - Stellar Spectra.
Display session, Wednesday, January 07
Exhibit Hall,
By measuring the abundance of the radioactive isotope thorium-232 (Z=90), Sneden, et al. (1996) found a lower limit of 15 Gyrs to the age of CS 22892-052, a metal-poor giant. Their estimate of the initial thorium abundance was based on a detailed study of many neutron-capture elements, up to Z=76, which matched a scaled solar system r-process pattern. We have obtained Keck HIRES data for a larger sample of field giants and show the results for two stars here: HD 115444 ([Fe/H] \sim -3.0) and HD 108577 ([Fe/H] \sim -2.3). We present abundances for heavy elements in these two stars to check whether the solar-system r-process pattern is indeed invariant, to test the extrapolation from Z \sim 70 to Z=90, and to determine the ages of two more metal-poor stars.
