Studying the Nature of Red Star-forming Galaxies using Observations of their Interstellar Medium from the JCMT

Observations of large numbers of galaxies in the universe have shown that the vast proportion of galaxies are either blue in colour and actively forming stars, or red in colour with little to no star formation. One goal of the study of galaxy formation is to establish any physical links between these types of galaxies. Since it is not possible for us to observe individual galaxies evolve in real time, we must infer their evolution by studying many galaxies with a range of properties. We will study a population of galaxies which are red in colour and yet actively forming stars, recently found in a recent study of Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. The study found that galaxies in this population, coined “red misfits,” are evolving from blue and star-forming to red and not star-forming. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Christine Wilson;Laura Parker

Student:

Partner:

Tsinghua University

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

McMaster University

Program: