A RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting organised by:Dr Karen Masters (University of Portsmouth, karen.masters_at_port.ac.uk); Dr Steven Bamford (University of Nottingham, steven.bamford_at_nottingham.ac.uk); Dr Sugata Kaviraj (University of Oxford, s.kaviraj1_at_physics.ox.ac.uk); Dr Chris Lintott (University of Oxford, cjl_at_astro.ox.ac.uk); Dr Brooke Simmons (University of Oxford, brooke.simmons_at_astro.ox.ac.uk
Important clues to the formation history of galaxies can be found in their morphologies. These data provide complimentary information to the star formation history and chemical composition as revealed by photometry and spectra. This meeting will focus on recent results in extragalactic astronomy which used morphological information on galaxies obtained from large survey data.
Information can be obtained on the formation history of galaxies from a variety of observations, including their luminosities, colours, spectra and morphologies (or visual appearance). The sheer size of recent extragalactic surveys had made the visual classification of galaxy morphologies impractical. The Galaxy Zoo project solved this problem by asking members of the public to help classify galaxies via an internet tool, and has been part of a reinvigoration of interest in the morphologies of galaxies and what they reveal and the formation processes. For example, the morphological information collected by Galaxy Zoo has shown itself to be a powerful database for studying galaxy evolution, with a series of over 30 peer-reviewed papers on a variety of topics from the study of local mergers, red spirals and blue ellipticals, tidal dwarf galaxies, dustlanes, the morphologies of AGN hosts, discovery of "green peas" and more.
This meeting will bring together a variety of researchers working in this field, including members of the Galaxy Zoo team, to discuss recent results and preview forthcoming developments.
Schedule:
10:00-10:30 Coffee
10:30-11:00 Importance of morphology on our understanding galaxy evolution - Roger Davies, (Invited)
11:00-11:30 Connecting Theory and Observations of Galaxy Morphology - Lia Athanassoula (Invited)
11:30 Click to Classifications in Galaxy Zoo 2 - Kyle Willet
11:45 Gas rich barred galaxies: a window on secular evolution - Karen Masters
12:00 Observing an Epoch of Bar Formation in Galaxy Zoo Hubble - Tom Melvin
12:15 Why the Green Valley is a Red Herring - Kevin Schawinski
12:30-13:00 Automatically measuring morphology - Steven Bamford (Invited)
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00 The insignificance of major mergers in creating spheroids and driving star formation - Sugata Kaviraj
14:15 Bulgeless Galaxies with Growing Black Holes - Brooke Simmons
14:30 Modelling the Secular Growth of Black Holes - Victor Debattista
14:45 Watching AGN evolution via light echoes - Chris Lintott
15:00-15:30 Morphology at high redshift - Jennifer Lotz (Invited)
15:30-16:00 Tea
16:00-17:00 RAS AGM (Fellows only)
17:00-18:00 Open A&G Meeting including Presidential Address (all invited)
Meeting website: http://ras2013.galaxyzoo.org