The Cosmic Distribution of Metals

The project aims to understand how the elements forged in stars flow through space and find their way into newstars and planets, using a combination of high-resolution numerical simulations and novel methods in machinelearning. The history of these elements, and how they came to be in planets like ours, is one of the most basicquestions remaining in astrophysics. The expected outcome is to provide a model for the history of the elementsthat can both stand on its own and provide a theoretical basis and a set of statistical tools to interpret the flood ofdata that will arrive from Australian and international telescopes over the next five years. The end results will benew and deeper insight into our cosmic origins.