A systematic characterisation of galactic planetary nebulae with a novel Fourier transfrom spectrograph

Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound structures in the Universe, making them perfect laboratories to study galaxy
formation and evolution. This evolution is closely influenced by the environment of a galaxy and sometimes, when two galaxies
are so close to one another, a merging event unfolds. Such an event leaves long lived fossil records in the outer part of the
resulting galaxy, detectable long after the merging took place. Thus, the main goal of my internship project is to use a special kind
of celestial object, i.e. planetary nebulae, to probe the population of stars inside galaxies as well as the merging history of these
galaxies. This will be done using data from a large sample of galaxies taken by the Canada-France-Hawai’i telescope. The
expected outcome of my project is to write a scientific paper showing the results found regarding the link between the properties
of planetary nebulae with the properties of the stars in the perspective of merger histories.

Faculty Supervisor:

Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo

Student:

Partner:

University of Oxford

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Technology

University:

Université de Montréal

Program: