Stellar chemical abundances with the GHRS

Abstract

The accurate quantitative analysis of high resolution ultraviolet spectra of ultra-sharp-lined, early-type, chemically peculiar stars, obtained with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, has been made possible by the synergism between state-of-the-art astrophysics and state-of-the-art atomic spectroscopy. We illustrate this with several examples, including the discovery of spin-forbidden "parasite" transitions of Fe II, the first observations of hyperfine components and isotopic shifts of stellar lines of thallium, and measurements of the photospheric abundances of a large number of normally trace elements.