Category: grant

Posted on

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Theory grant: quenching of satellite galaxies

Space Telescope Science Institute has awarded our team

a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Theory grant for Understanding the physics of gas stripping and star-formation quenching of the satellite dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. Our goal is to use our Latte suite of FIRE-2 simulations to understand how satellite galaxies evolve after they fall into a host halo like the Milky Way, with emphasis on how (internal) stellar feedback and (external) environmental processes like ram-pressure stripping remove their gas and quench their star formation, as observed in the Local Group.

Posted on

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Program: MW-6D survey

Space Telescope Science Institute has awarded our team

  • PI Nitya Kallivayalil
  • co-PI Andrew Wetzel
  • co-investigators Jay Anderson, Gurtina Besla, Tom Brown, Alis Deason, Tobias Fritz, Marla Geha, Raja Guhathakurta, Evan Kirby, Steve Majewski, Josh Simon, Tony Sohn, Erik Tollerud, and Roeland van der Marel

a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Program of 164 orbits for Milky Way Cosmology: Laying the Foundation for Full 6-D Dynamical Mapping of the Nearby Universe. These Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations will provide the initial baselines for long-term proper-motion measurements for all of the known satellite galaxies around the Milky Way. Our goal is to measure the orbital motions of these galaxies as they move across the sky over the next 3 – 10 years, to complete their full 6-dimensional orbital phase-space. Our key science goals are to

  • Dynamically measure the mass distribution of the Milky Way’s dark-matter halo
  • Understand the role of the Milky Way’s environment on the evolution of satellite galaxies
  • Use low-mass galaxies as probes of the epoch of reionization
  • Test physical associations of satellite galaxies
  • Measure internal stellar kinematics of galaxies, to test the nature of Cold Dark Matter (CDM)