by Andrew Emerick | Sep 29, 2014 | Daily Paper Summaries
As galaxies evolve they eventually stop forming stars. There are a host of (sometimes violent) processes that can end star formation in galaxies. The authors examine how galaxy mass plays a role in stopping star formation for nearby galaxies.
by Elisa Chisari | Jun 30, 2014 | Daily Paper Summaries
How small and faint can galaxies get? The authors of this paper report on the discovery of a dwarf galaxy in the Sculptor group.
by Becky Smethurst | Jun 17, 2014 | Daily Paper Summaries
Once thought to be the main mechanism by which galaxies feed their star formation; the authors of this paper find that minor mergers cannot account for the observed star formation rates of galaxies.
by Astrobites | Jan 7, 2014 | Current Events
Keep up with all the latest happenings in Maryland with us, as we continue to liveblog the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Also stay up to the minute with us on Twitter, @astrobites!
by Lucia Morganti | Feb 22, 2013 | Daily Paper Summaries
A phenomenological series of simulations of dwarf galaxies placed on different orbits around a Milky Way-like galaxy, in order to learn about the properties (and observability) of tidal tails in dwarf galaxies around our Milky Way.
by Ryan Foltz | Feb 3, 2013 | Daily Paper Summaries
TITLE: Comparing the Ancient Star Formation Histories of the Magellanic Clouds AUTHORS: Daniel R. Weisz, Andrew E. Dolphin, Evan D. Skillman, Jon Holtzman, Julianne J. Dalcanton, Andrew A. Cole, Kyle Neary AUTHORS’ INSTITUTION: University of WashingtonThe evolution of galaxies can be investigated in two ways: we can observe galaxies at farther distances to get a picture of how galaxies appeared at earlier times (since the light from these distance sources requires time to reach our telescopes), or we can study the remnants of past events in our nearby universe. This paper is an example of the latter approach. Using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the authors try to piece together the detailed history of how the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds formed their stars.The Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC) are two of the closest neighbors to our home galaxy, the Milky Way. In fact, they’re so close that they’re classified as satellite galaxies, meaning they’re gravitationally bound to the Milky Way in the same way the Earth is gravitationally bound to the Sun. They’re also rather smaller, less-thoroughly formed, and irregularly shaped than our own galaxy, being examples of dwarf galaxies. If you want to study populations of stars and how they form, it’s hard to find better subjects than the Magellanic clouds; they’re close enough that we can make out the individual stars (especially with a telescope with Hubble’s resolution) and they’ve been extensively investigated over the years, giving us a solid understanding of their sizes and distances and other properties.The stars that make up the LMC and SMC were formed over a period of many...
