Related papers: Can Early Type Galaxies Evolve from Fading the Dis…
A new idea is proposed for the origin of bulges in spiral galaxies. Numerical simulations for the protogalactic collapse suggest strongly that galactic bulges have been assembled from massive clumps formed in the galactic disks in their…
The origin of S0 galaxies is discussed in the framework of early mergers in a Cold Dark Matter cosmology, and in a scenario where S0s are assumed to be former spirals stripped of gas. From an analysis of 127 early-type disk galaxies…
We present results from an optical-IR photometric study of early-type galaxies in 19 galaxy clusters out to z=0.9. The galaxy sample is selected on the basis of morphologies determined from HST WFPC2 images, and is photometrically defined…
A large fraction of bulgeless disk galaxies contain young compact stellar systems at their centers, in spite of the local gravitational stability of these disks. We evaluate two contrasting hypotheses for the origin of the nuclear star…
Recent observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have begun to reveal a surprising morphological diversity in galaxies within the first billion years after the Big Bang, including indications of structural maturity previously…
Morphological and spectroscopic studies of high redshift clusters indicate that a significant fraction of present-day early-type galaxies was transformed from star forming galaxies at z<1. On the other hand, the slow luminosity evolution of…
I briefly review the growing evidence that thick stellar disks surround most edge-on disk galaxies. Recent studies show that these extragalactic thick disks have old ages, low metallicities, long scale lengths, and moderately flattened…
Early-type dwarf galaxies are found to have high specific globular cluster frequencies which are similar to the high S values that are observed in luminous galaxies of types E and S0. It appears unlikely that cluster formation during…
We suggest and verify a new photometric method enabling derivation of relative thickness of a galactic disk from two-dimensional surface-brightness distribution of the galaxy in the plane of the sky. The method is applied to images of 45…
Elliptical and S0 galaxies dominate the galaxy population in nearby rich clusters such as Coma. Studies of the evolution of the colors, M/L ratios, and line indices of early-type galaxies indicate that they have been a highly homogeneous,…
We summarise some recent results about nearby galactic bulges that are relevant to their formation. We highlight a number of significant advances in our understanding of the surface brightness profiles, stellar populations, and especially…
Galaxy evolution is in transition from an early universe dominated by hierarchical clustering to a future dominated by secular processes. These result from interactions involving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiral…
Many disc galaxies in clusters have been found with bulges of similar age or younger than their surrounding discs, at odds with field galaxies of similar morphology and their expected inside-out formation. We use the EAGLE simulations to…
For a sample of bright nearby early-type galaxies we have obtained surface photometry in bands ranging from U to K. Since the galaxies have inclinations larger than 50 deg. it is easy to separate bulges and disks. By measuring the colours…
We review internal secular evolution in galaxy disks -- the fundamental process by which isolated disks evolve. We concentrate on the buildup of dense central features that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly…
We analyse a sample of about 2000 galaxies in 40 regular clusters, to look for evidence of segregation with respect to galaxy luminosities and morphological types. We find evidence of luminosity segregation for galaxies brighter than $M_R <…
We analyze the dependence of the stellar disc flatness on the galaxy morphological type using 2D decomposition of galaxies from the reliable subsample of the Edge-on Galaxies in SDSS (EGIS) catalogue. Combining these data with the retrieved…
The slow evolution of the M/L ratios, colors, and line strengths of cluster early-type galaxies to z=1 suggests that their stars were formed at very high redshift. At the same time, morphological studies of distant clusters indicate…
This talk investigates the formation of early-type galaxies from a deliberately observational view point. I begin by reviewing the conclusions that can be reached by comparing the detailed properties of galaxies in present-day clusters,…
ABRIDGED: We use HSTACS and NICMOS imaging to study the structure and colors of a sample of nine late-type spirals. We find: (1) A correlation between bulge and disks scale-lengths, and a correlation between the colors of the bulges and…