2021.10.07 - Karin Menendez-Delmestre
Channel: Coloquio IRyA
Date: 2022-02-24

Speaker info: Prof. Karin Menendez-Delmestre, UFRJ

Title: Stellar Structures in Galaxies: Insights from the Local Universe
Abstract:
Galaxies in the local universe are a fossil record of events in the distant universe and present critical constraints for examining models of formation and evolution of galaxies. Based on the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) database, we study the stellar light that is typically associated with different stellar structures (such as bulge, disk, bar, spiral arms) in an effort to construct a local reference for stellar structure studies. S4G is one of the major legacy surveys of the post-cryogenic campaign of Spitzer and is the largest, deepest and most homogenous mid-IR survey of the nearby Universe to date. Combined with deep optical follow-up, an unprecedented opportunity opens up to complement a stellar mass census with a detailed analysis of the stellar populations in stellar structures. With this in mind we have initiated an observational campaign using the Goodman imager on SOAR to go after S4G galaxies in the southern sky: the Census of Austral Nearby GAlaxies (CANGA). The CANGA survey, covering all griz bands, complements the exquisite work that has been performed by the Sloan Digital Sky Server in the northern hemisphere, but largely surpasses its sensitivity. I will show a number of discoveries we have made within the S4G data set, with a particular focus on the characterization of stellar bars, and give you a preview of the exciting work we are doing with CANGA.