Physics Program Presents

Gas Stripping in Nearby Galaxy Groups and Clusters

A long-standing problem in extragalactic astronomy is to understand the correlation between a galaxy's environment and its ability to form new stars. The fraction of red galaxies is much higher in dense environments, whereas blue, star-forming galaxies are more prevalent in rural galactic environments. One could therefore infer that environment plays a role in removing gas from galaxies and may help drive a galaxy's transition from blue and star-forming to red and quiescent. However, many other galaxy properties correlate with environment, such as mass and morphology. I will present results from the Local Cluster Survey, a survey whose goal is to look for evidence of environmentally driven quenching among star-forming galaxies in nearby galaxy groups and clusters. We have studied 200 galaxies over a range of stellar mass, morphology, and environment in an effort to separate the influence of these factors. We find that galaxies in dense environments have more centrally concentrated star formation, and the presence of a bulge seems to enhance the effectiveness of environmental processing. Our results suggest that galaxies in dense environments experience outside-in quenching over a timescale of several gigayears. I will also discuss new work that probes galaxies in the filamentary structure around the Virgo cluster, and the possibility for completing observations of these filament galaxies using Siena College's new telescope.

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For more information, call 845-752-7584, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Hegeman 107

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