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Research group The Galaxy group

At the Department of Astronomy, we use observations from optical to radio wavelengths combined with modelling to understand how galaxies were formed and evolve.

This is a true-colour image of the major part of NGC 1365, combined from three exposures with the FORS1 multi-mode instrument at VLT UT1, in the B (blue), V (green) and R (red) optical bands. Credit: ESO

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Contact person at SU

Göran Östlin

Professor

Department of Astronomy

08-553 785 13

ostlin@astro.su.se

Overview

Participants

Department of Astronomy

Research subjects

Galaxies

More information

Partners

Group description

Our focus is on kinematics, star formation histories, and interstellar medium of starforming galaxies and blue compact galaxies, as well as the Lyman-alpha emission and Lyman continuum escape from these galaxies. We probe star formation processes at sub-kiloparsec scales, including how they relate to galactic scale physical properties and contribute to regulate the recycling of material necessary to sustain the formation of new stars.

Using supercomputers we model the effects of the first galaxies on the intergalactic medium, the so-called reionization of the universe.

The researchers at the department are collaborating with the physics departments at Stockholm University and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) within the Oskar Klein Centre.

Group members

Group managers

Göran Östlin

Professor

Department of Astronomy

08-553 785 13

ostlin@astro.su.se

Members

Angela Adamo

Associate Professor

Department of Astronomy

08-553 785 56

angela.adamo@astro.su.se

Adrianus Bik

Senior Researcher

Department of Astronomy

arjan.bik@astro.su.se

Giacomo Bortolini

PhD student

Department of Astronomy

giacomo.bortolini@astro.su.se

Nushkia Chamba

Guest researcher

Department of Astronomy

nushkia.chamba@astro.su.se

Suhyeon Choe

PhD student

Department of Astronomy

suhyeon.choe@astro.su.se

Aline Chu

Postdoc

Department of Astronomy

aline.chu@astro.su.se

Timmy Ejdetjärn

PhD student

Department of Astronomy

timmy.ejdetjarn@astro.su.se

Jenny Frediani

PhD student

Department of Astronomy

jenny.frediani@astro.su.se

Matthew Hayes

Associate Professor

Department of Astronomy

08-553 785 21

matthew.hayes@astro.su.se

Jens Melinder

Senior Researcher

Department of Astronomy

jens@astro.su.se

Magnus Näslund

Associate Professor

Department of Astronomy

08-553 785 27

magnus@astro.su.se

Alex Pedrini

PhD student

Department of Astronomy

alex.pedrini@astro.su.se

Thøger Emil Juul Rivera-Thorsen

Researcher

Department of Astronomy

trive@astro.su.se

Axel Runnholm

Postdoc

Department of Astronomy

axel.runnholm@astro.su.se

Alberto Saldana-Lopez

Postdoc

Department of Astronomy

alberto.saldana-lopez@astro.su.se

Helena Faustino Vieira

Postdoc

Department of Astronomy

helena.faustinovieira@astro.su.se

Alice Robinson Young

PhD student

Department of Astronomy

alice.young@astro.su.se

Göran Östlin

Professor

Department of Astronomy

08-553 785 13

ostlin@astro.su.se

Research projects

News

2024-10-17

Six researchers share SEK 175 million from the Wallenberg Foundation

The importance of Arctic methane emissions for the climate, how matter is formed and broken down, evolutionary shifts in the plant kingdom, and new effective methods for producing bioactive substances that will meet future needs for medicines and advanced electronics. These are just a few examples of basic research at Stockholm University that has received funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

2024-09-18

NASA’s Hubble finds more black holes than expected in the early universe

With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.

2024-06-24

Department of Astronomy

Star clusters observed within a galaxy in the early Universe for the first time

Understanding how stars and galaxies formed and evolved is one of astrophysics' biggest challenges. A new study led by Dr. Angela Adamo at Stockholm University offers fresh insights. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers studied the galaxy Cosmic Gems arc (SPT0615-JD), whose light was emitted 460 million years after the big bang. This galaxy, magnified by gravitational lensing, revealed five young massive star clusters. “The surprise and astonishment was incredible when we opened the JWST images for the first time” says Adamo.

2024-06-19

Department of Astronomy

The most distant quasar observed using the JWST

Using the space telescope JWST, astronomers have examined one of the most distant known black holes in the universe. Their observations provide a glimpse of the growth of black holes in the early universe, less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Surprisingly, the early black hole in question seems to be “feeding” in much the same manner as its more recent kin. Astronomers have been struggling for a while now to explain how the earliest black holes gained their considerable masses. The new results all but rule out unusually efficient feeding mechanisms at early times as a possible solution. The results have been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

2024-01-19

Observations of Dramatic Galactic Collision Unlock Clues to the Reionization of the Universe

An international team, led by Dr. Alexandra Le Reste from Stockholm University and the Oskar Klein Centre, used the MeerKAT radio telescope to investigate processes at the origin of the Epoch of Reionization, a crucial period occurring a billion years after the Big Bang. The study, made possible by MeerKAT's increased sensitivity relative to older telescopes, reveals how galaxy mergers might have influenced the transformation of the Universe during this epoch.

2023-11-14

Barred spiral galaxy M83 captured using JWST by SU researchers

The James Webb telescope continues to capture spactacular images of spiral galaxies as part of Angela Adamos research at the Department of Astronomy. The most recent instalment is the galaxy M83.

2023-02-06

Star formation in distant galaxies by the James Webb Space Telescope

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images of galaxy clusters, researchers have, for the very first time, been able to examine very compact structures of star clusters inside galaxies, so-called clumps. In a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers from Stockholm University have studied the first phase of star formation in distant galaxies.