Overall Description / Broad Science Goal:
The Virgo cluster is our nearest rich collection of galaxies. The properties of the cluster are being studied in great detail by many different groups of astronomers around the world. The project mentors are member of the premier Next Generation Virgo Survey (NGVS) team. When attempting to study this cluster, we find that the sample contains different types of stars belonging to our Milky Way galaxy, along with many galaxies that are significantly further away than the Virgo cluster itself. The goal of this project is to characterize the nature of these foreground stars and background galaxies.
Analysis procedure:
By studying the location of our spectroscopic targets in a color-magnitude diagram, the student will separate them into different categories: three flavors of Milky Way stars – members of the Virgo overdensity substructure, members of the Sagittarius stream (another substructure), and members of the distant outer halo – and background galaxies. She/he will study the spectroscopic and photometric properties of these different categories of NGVS sources.
Mentor: Elisa Toloba, Postdoctoral Scholar
Secondary Mentors: Ms. Jingjing Chen (Peking U), Prof. Raja GuhaThakurta