A team of astronomers working on the 3D-HST survey make use of the Hubble Space Telescope’s grism to observe star formation as a function of radius in a large sample of galaxies at intermediate redshift.
The authors investigate the fraction of massive galaxies at z ~ 2 that contains an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), in hopes of understanding the importance of AGN in quenching star formation.
Using new data from the MOSFIRE spectrograph, the authors of this paper test the ability of classic emission line diagnostics to separate star formation activity from supermassive black hole accretion at high redshift. What they find may be important for understanding how the growth galaxies and black holes affect one another over cosmic time.
Using massive gravitational lenses can help us study the evolution of galaxies over unprecedented time scales.
“Galactic archaeology” is the term that has come to refer to using the motions and chemical compositions of stars of different ages to learn about the history of the Milky Way. It seems to me that “galactic paleontology” might be a bit more accurate. I hope to see galactic archaeology v. galactic paleontology fought out in the comments!
Observational surveys looking for the smallest super-massive black holes come up empty; could they be hiding in plain sight?