Abstract

The Milky Way is an excellent test bed for Galaxy formation. In recent years new observations have led to a better understanding of the central component of our Galaxy, the bulge. This includes the discovery of a metal-poor population of stars, which simulations predict may be the oldest stars in the Galaxy. In this talk I will present results from the COMBS (Chemical Origins of Metal-poor Bulge Stars) survey, which aims to chemodynamically characterize this metal-poor bulge population. Specifically, I will talk about the first part of this survey that was published last year which presents the chemical abundances of 24 metal-poor bulge stars using high-resolution (R~47,000) VLT/UVES spectra along with the upcoming second part of the survey which looks at the dynamics of ~500 metal-poor bulge stars. I will also speak about my work making a high precision map of the distant Milky Way using red clump stars selected from photometry and how this map can be used to further our understanding of how the Milky Way and similar galaxies formed.