TYC 170--1218--1: A new r-process-enhanced extremely metal-poor star, rich in Th.

Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars are formed from gas clouds enriched by one or a few supernova explosions belonging to the first stellar generation and this very limited number of sources of metal enrichment is suitable to produce peculiar chemical patterns that give birth to stars with anomalous chemical composition. Among the EMP stars, r-II stars are characterised by an over-abundance of the heavy elements with respect to iron. In the search for apparently young, metal-poor stars, we serendipitously selected , which turned out to be an EMP star, enhanced in neutron capture elements over iron. Our aim is to obtain a detailed chemical inventory for this exceptional object. We investigated high-resolution spectra observed with UVES at the VLT telescope and Mike at the Magellan Clay telescope. We derived the abundance of 33 elements using the code and an ATLAS,9 model atmosphere. The star is an EMP with Fe/H =--3.52. It is enhanced in the α elements, as EMP stars usually are. It is an r-II star with Eu/Fe =+1.84 and Th/Fe =+1.85. The star is also poor in carbon with respect to iron. The quality of the spectra was insufficient for us to detect uranium. Kinematically the star belongs now to the Galactic halo, but it joined the Milky Way during the Sequoia accretion event.