A team of researchers present multiwavelength observations of a rare merger between two massive, gas-rich starburst galaxies at a redshift of 2.3. This kind of merger could help explain the presence of the most massive elliptical galaxies at high redshift.
Huang et al. dig up evidence that distant “red nugget” galaxies grew into the massive ellipticals we see today by consuming smaller, gas-poor galaxies.
Moving mesh code AREPO looks like it will help astronomers understand the physics of galaxy formation and evolution better than its predecessors, due to an innovative new method of solving the fluid dynamics equations in astrophysical settings. This paper discusses the differences between AREPO and another code called GADGET in the case of gas accretion onto galaxies.
The central question of this Letter is how and when the Milky Way assembled its stellar mass. This issue is addressed by tracing the formation history of spiral galaxies which closely resemble the Milky Way.
In this article, the authors measure the stellar mass-metallicity relation for star forming galaxies ranging to z~2.3. They find that mass-metallicity relationship for these galaxies evolves with time and also that it flattens at late times.
What were astronomers reading and talking about in their research last year? Check out figures from the top 12 most-cited astronomy papers from 2012 (so far) and find out what researchers were up to and why!