Dimitri Gadotti

The TIMER project: Time Inference with MUSE in Extragalactic Rings

 

I am currently dedicating time and effort in leading a very exciting international project that uses an instrument at the Very Large Telescope called MUSE. MUSE is an integral field spectrograph that delivers 90000 spectra per pointing, across a field of 1 square arcminute, covering the entire optical range at a spectral resolution of a few thousand and with a spatial sampling of 0.2 arcseconds.

 

Since April 2016, the TIMER team is using MUSE to

study the central regions of 24 nearby galaxies. The

unique capabilities of MUSE allow us to study the different

structural components in these galaxies in detail. We have

derived the stellar ages, chemical compositions and star

formation histories of these components, and are studying

the kinematics and dynamics of their gaseous and stellar

constituents. This project will help us understand how

galaxies formed and evolved across cosmic history, a major

topic of investigation in Astrophysics today.

 

More specifically, the TIMER project will lead to robust

estimates of the formation redshift of the bars in these

galaxies. Because bars only form after the galactic disc reaches a

dynamically mature state, we will also put constraints to when

galaxy discs become dynamically mature, a key ingredient in our

understanding of how galaxies form and evolve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Three of the galaxies in the TIMER sample are shown above; these are images from the beautiful Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey.

 

The TIMER project is carried out by a team of over 20 experts from research

institutes, universities and observatories in Germany, Spain, Austria, England,

Brazil, South Korea, and United States.