19 April 2007

Speaker: Debra Meloy Elmegreen (Vassar College)

Title:Clumpy Galaxies in the Early Universe

Abstract: Observations of galaxies out to z~5 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field reveal unusual clumpy morphologies in addition to spirals and ellipticals. These high redshift galaxies are mostly starburst systems, with star-forming regions 1000 times more massive than in today's galaxies. Many of the clumpy galaxies have thick disks that are half the size of local galaxies and lack bulges and exponential disks; they may grow through merging and accretion, and evolve into today's spirals when the star-forming clumps migrate to the centers or dissolve.

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