Overview

Zoom and In-person at UW Physics Building.

Please join us for an evening with Dr. Adam Smercina, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington.

Dr. Smercina's research includes how galaxies form and evolve, from the smallest dwarf galaxies to large galaxies like the Milky Way. Using gas content, resolved stellar populations, and satellite populations of galaxies roughly the size of our Milky Way to understand how they change over time, especially as a result of their interactions with other galaxies. 

Using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope we are able to resolve tens of millions of individual stars in M33, and recover information about the properties of these stars, such as their age. Comparing the distributions of stars of different ages, we observe that the distribution of very young and very old stars in M33 look quite different. While almost completely hidden at visible wavelengths, we find that M33 is actually a barred galaxy, with two very dominant spiral arms. The beautiful "flocculent" structure that captivates the attention in optical images is entirely driven by the youngest, brightest populations. He will discuss where this difference comes from and more of the context of M33 in the Andromeda system. 

Members log in for link / Public please request link at outreach@seattleastro.org (All are welcome in-person!)

Questions? outreach@seattleastro.org