Welcome to the Summer 2014 Wyoming Astronomy REU Webpage!

In Summer 2014 we will explore how galaxies grow through mergers and accretion events. Occasionally there are striking stellar debris tails that result from these interactions, and we will spend the summer observing/discovering/analyzing candidate tidal features. Our science goals include comparing the ages of the tidal streamers with the ages of the parent galaxy disks; measuring the masses of the tidal streamers; and determining whether the galaxies in our sample grow from the inside-out or the outside-in.

Examples of extended stellar features in galaxies

• Spiral galaxy NGC 5907 Knife Edge Galaxy
• The colliding NGC 4038/4039 Antennae
• Spitzer Space Telescope images from a related project

Background information

• Galaxy dynamics simulations #1 #2
• Papers to read #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10
• Proposals to read #1 #2
• Chip's Research Expectations document

Observing and data processing

• Preliminary schedule
• Observing plan and schedule
• Cheat sheets Linux IRAF
• Danny's processing cookbooks OTZF align/stack/WCS
• IRAF homework #1 #2 #3 #4
• Object altitude vs time plots (for WIRO: 254.024 41.0983 2943)

Other professional development

• Programming in Python
• Oral presentation hints John Wheeler
• Poster ideas #1 #2 #3 #4 #5

Goals

• Summer goals