Event Details

How do galaxies evolve? This is at first a seemingly simple and fundamental question, yet it is a question laced with intricacies. To help unravel the mystery of galaxy evolution, I present some of my thesis work, where I used deep narrowband imaging to investigate the nearby M101 Group. Namely, I searched for a found very little evidence of tidal debris from an interaction as recent as ~300 Myr ago. I analyzed the oxygen abundances of M101, finding tentative evidence of a broken exponential gradient. Finally, I looked at the old stellar populations of M101, providing rare observational evidence of the large-scale shock scenario. I’ll end with some of my more recent work with the SIGNALS collaboration, investigating the supposed correlation between ionization parameter and oxygen abundance.