Project E
Fuelling star formation in nearby galaxies
Dominika Wylezalek & Francesco Belfiore
Examine nearby galaxies using cutting edge radio and optical data to understand how they formed and evolved! Also, learn to observe with a giant radio telescope!
How galaxies form and evolve is one of the major unresolved questions in modern astrophysics. Galaxies exist in a state of flux, being subject to a range of physical processes (e.g. gas outflows and star formation) which are the drivers of galaxy evolution. Many of these processes are concerned with the behaviour of gas. In particular, the behaviour of the cold gas, the fuel for star formation, is central to understanding the galaxy evolution process as a whole.
MASCOT is a large galaxy survey that combines radio and optical observations of nearby galaxies. The radio observations trace the cold molecular gas while the optical 3D spectroscopic observations are ideal for investigating the spatial dimension of galaxy evolution over a wide range of galaxy properties. The radio observations at the Arizona Radio Observatory are still ongoing while the optical data come from the MaNGA survey. MaNGA is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey which is international collaboration of hundreds of scientists at dozens of institutions.
This unique combination of radio and optical observations will allow to attain a better understanding of the gas content of galaxies, particularly in relation to a range of more detailed, spatially resolved physical parameters.
The student will:
* Gain experience in getting access and handling large datasets and complex file formats.
* Learn how to derive physical meaningful quantities from galaxies’ spectra and supporting multi-wavelength observations.
* Explore how the cold gas content in galaxies relates to the 2D distribution of other galaxy parameters.
* Assist with remote observing runs and observe galaxies with the Arizona Radio Observatory 12m antenna.
#galaxies #galaxyevolution #3Dspectroscopy #bigdata #observing
