Clumpy galaxies in the Early Universe

As part of WITS 90th birthday celebrations, the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics is hosting a specialized Astronomy Colloquium by Prof. Debbie Elmegreen, entitled Clumpy Galaxies in the Early Universe.

Photometric studies of nearly 1000 large galaxies out to redshift z=5, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in the Ultra Deep Field, reveal rich details of galaxy evolution. At such enormous distances, astronomers probe ages of galaxies  less than 2 billion years after the Big Bang.

Galaxies in the early Universe include most unusual morphologies not seen locally, such as chains, clump clusters, and tadpoles, in addition to spirals and elliptical galaxies.

These young galaxies contain star-forming regions nearly 100 million times the mass of our sun, one thousand times more massive than star complexes in nearby galaxies.

Observations and theory of how these clumpy galaxies grow and transform into today’s spiral galaxies will be presented.