Related papers: Galaxies and Cladistics
Properties of groups of galaxies depend sensitively on the algorithm for group selection, and even the most recent catalogs of groups built from redshift-space selection should suffer from projections and infalling galaxies. The…
The fact that galaxy distribution exhibits fractal properties is well established since twenty years. Nowadays, the controversy concerns the range of the fractal regime, the value of the fractal dimension and the eventual presence of a…
How did galaxies form and evolve? This is one of the most challenging questions in astronomy to- day. Answering it requires a careful combination of observational and theoretical work to reliably determine the observed properties of cosmic…
This review focuses on how galaxies and their globular cluster systems form. I first discuss the now fairly convincing evidence that some globular clusters form in galaxy starbursts/mergers. One way these observations are valuable is they…
The morphological classification of galaxies is considered a relevant issue and can be approached from different points of view. The increasing growth in the size and accuracy of astronomical data sets brings with it the need for the use of…
Compact groups of galaxies (CGs) show members with morphological disturbances, mainly products of galaxy-galaxy interactions, thus making them ideal systems to study galaxy evolution, in high-density environment. To understand how this…
We develop a simple, fast and predictive model of the hierarchical formation of galaxies which is in quantitative agreement with observations. Comparing simulations with observations we place constraints on the density of the universe and…
How elliptical galaxy dynamics relate to galaxy structure, stellar populations, spiral galaxies and environment are reviewed. The evidence assembled shows that most, if not all, galaxies originally classified as gE contain disks within…
The star formation, mass assembly and chemical enrichment histories of galaxies, and their present distributions of dark matter, remain encoded in their stellar populations. Distinguishing the actual distribution functions of stellar age,…
Rich clusters of galaxies, the largest virialized systems known, provide a powerful tool for the study of cosmology. Some of the fundamental questions that can be addressed with clusters of galaxies include: how did galaxies and large-scale…
Timescales in astronomy comprise the largest range of any scientific discipline. In the construction of physical models, this circumstance may both be a blessing and a curse. For example, galaxy evolution occurs on typical timescales of…
We use automated surface photometry and pattern classification techniques to morphologically classify galaxies. The two-dimensional light distribution of a galaxy is reconstructed using Fourier series fits to azimuthal profiles computed in…
Our Milky Way Galaxy is a typical large spiral galaxy, representative of the most common morphological type in the local Universe. We can determine the properties of individual stars in unusual detail, and use the characteristics of the…
I outline a quantitative method for characterizing galaxies both by photometric `form' and indices of spectral-type, applicable to both nearby and distant galaxies. Such a characterization provides insight on galaxy evolution because there…
Evolved stars dominate galactic spectra, enrich the galactic medium, expand to change their planetary systems, eject winds of a complex nature, produce spectacular nebulae and illuminate them, and transfer material between binary…
In models of galaxy formation in a hierarchical Universe, elliptical galaxies form through the merging of smaller disk systems. These models yield a number of testable predictions if reliable techniques for determining the relative ages and…
The formation and evolution of galactic disks is particularly important for understanding how galaxies form and evolve, and the cause of the variety in which they appear to us. Ongoing large surveys, made possible by new instrumentation at…
Open and globular star clusters have served as benchmarks for the study of stellar evolution due to their supposed nature as simple stellar populations of the same age and metallicity. After a brief review of some of the pioneering work…
Multiple images, giant arcs, Einstein cross, fold, cusp, lip, caustics, critical lines, sources, mapping, time delay, arclets, weak shear, magnification bias, depletion, ellipticities, polarization, smearing, convergence, kernel, mass…
The statistical properties of the ellipticities of galaxy images depend on how galaxies form and evolve, and therefore constrain models of galaxy morphology, which are key to the removal of the intrinsic alignment contamination of…