Extragalactic Astrophysics
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Galaxies are fundamental cosmic building blocks. They serve as markers to explore the distribution of matter in the Universe on large scales. Active Galaxies and Quasars are particularly important. Nearby objects can be resolved spatially and are allocated to populations of different kinematics, stellar formation history and chemical abundances. Methods of 3D spectroscopy as an integral part of the technology programme of the institute are especially relevant to these objects. Galaxies in our direct cosmic neighbourhood, and in the Milky Way, can be resolved into individual stars. As stellar populations conserve the chemical and kinematic conditions from the time of their birth, the formation history of those galaxies can be reconstructed in impressive detail and a galaxy becomes a cosmic laboratory. |
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This relatively new field of research is also known as “Galactic Archaeology” or “Near-field Cosmology”. Theoretical studies further examine and link these different aspects of extragalactic research with high-resolution numerical simulations. Contact: Prof. Dr. Matthias Steinmetz, Director Research Branch "Extragalactic Astrophysics", msteinmetz@aip.de |
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Research groups
Milky Way and the Local VolumeStructure, kinematics and chemical development of the Milky Way; stellar populations of nearby disk galaxies; astrometry and quantitative spectroscopy; detailed model calculations concerning the formation history of the Milky Way.
Dwarf galaxies and the Galactic haloStar formation history, evolution, structure, kinematics and dynamics of the Magellanic Clouds; distance calibrators in the form Cepheids and RR Lyrae period-luminosity relations; pristine stars and the early Milky Way.
Galaxies and quasarsStructure and evolution of galaxies at low and high redshifts, in particular using integral field spectroscopy. Demographic studies of Active Galactic Nuclei and quasars. X-ray astronomy: Surveys with X-ray satellites; investigation of compact objects.
Cosmology and High-Energy AstrophysicsMorphology and evolution of large-scale structure, formation of first stars and galaxies, intergalactic medium and background radiation, galaxy formation in a cosmological environment, dark matter halos and dark energy effects in cosmology
Projects |
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