Research group The Galaxy group
The Galaxy Group at the Astronomy Department investigates how galaxies form and evolve across cosmic time. We combine ground- and space-based observations spanning the full electromagnetic spectrum with advanced theoretical modelling to understand the astrophysics that formed and shaped the galaxies we see today.
Mosaic of various extragalactic observations the Galaxy group is working on. Left: JWST NIRCam+MIRI image of the Whirlpool galaxy from the FEAST project (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo and the FEAST JWST team). Top center: JWST NIRCAM+MIRI image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Östlin, P. G. Perez-Gonzalez, J. Melinder, the JADES Collaboration, the MIDIS collaboration, M. Zamani). Top right: JWST image of the metal-poor starburst galaxy IZw18 (ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A. Hirschauer, M. Meixner, G. Bortolini, G. Östlin). Bottom center: A supermassive black hole discovered through variability using Hubble images taken over a 20 year period (NASA, ESA, M. Hayes, J. DePasquale). Bottom right: JWST image of the Abell S1063 cluster from the GLIMPSE project (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Atek, M. Zamani, R. Endsley).
Our research addresses the origin and evolution of galaxies from the very first galaxies to the local Universe. We probe physical scales from parsec-sized stellar clusters to megaparsec-sized galaxy clusters in order to build a coherent and multi-scale picture of galaxy evolution.
We study the physical processes that regulate how and when stars and stellar clusters form in galaxies and how these affect the surrounding interstellar medium within the galaxy, but also how supermassive black holes form and evolve.
Key themes include:
- Understanding how stars form inside galaxies and stellar clusters, and how the rate of star formation changes over time.
- Galaxy kinematics and dynamics
- Stellar and black hole feedback processes
- Dust formation and its impact on galaxy evolution
- The production and escape of Lyman-α and Lyman-continuum radiation
By combining multi-wavelength observations with state-of-the-art theoretical models and numerical simulations we can connect the physical processes active on small scales within galaxies, and which govern the formation of stars, to larger scale cosmic structures. By observing galaxies which emitted their light in the early Universe we can also follow these processes over cosmic time.
