Skip to main content
Home

Navigation Menu

  • Back
  • About
    • Back
    • About

      Contact Us

      Business Address
      5241 Broad Branch Rd. NW

      Washington , DC 20015
      United States place Map
      Call Us (202) 387-640
    • Who We Are
      • Back
      • Leadership
      • Our Blueprint For Discovery
      • Board of Trustees
      • Financial Stewardship
      • Awards & Accolades
      • History
    • Connect with Us
      • Back
      • Outreach & Education
      • Newsletter
      • Yearbook
    • Working at Carnegie
      • Back
      • Applications Open: Postdoctoral Fellowships

    Contact Us

    Business Address
    5241 Broad Branch Rd. NW

    Washington , DC 20015
    United States place Map
    Call Us (202) 387-6400
  • Research
    • Back
    • Research Areas & Topics
    • Research Areas & Topics
      • Back
      • Research Areas
      • From genomes to ecosystems and from planets to the cosmos, Carnegie Science is an incubator for cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research.
      • Astronomy & Astrophysics
        • Back
        • Astronomy & Astrophysics
        • Astrophysical Theory
        • Cosmology
        • Distant Galaxies
        • Milky Way & Stellar Evolution
        • Planet Formation & Evolution
        • Solar System & Exoplanets
        • Telescope Instrumentation
        • Transient & Compact Objects
      • Earth Science
        • Back
        • Earth Science
        • Experimental Petrology
        • Geochemistry
        • Geophysics & Geodynamics
        • Mineralogy & Mineral Physics
      • Ecology
        • Back
        • Ecology
        • Atmospheric Science & Energy
        • Adaptation to Climate Change
        • Water Quality & Scarcity
      • Genetics & Developmental Biology
        • Back
        • Genetics & Developmental Biology
        • Adaptation to Climate Change
        • Developmental Biology & Human Health
        • Genomics
        • Model Organism Development
        • Nested Ecosystems
        • Symbiosis
      • Matter at Extreme States
        • Back
        • Matter at Extreme States
        • Extreme Environments
        • Extreme Materials
        • Mineralogy & Mineral Physics
      • Planetary Science
        • Back
        • Planetary Science
        • Astrobiology
        • Cosmochemistry
        • Mineralogy & Mineral Physics
        • Planet Formation & Evolution
        • Solar System & Exoplanets
      • Plant Science
        • Back
        • Plant Science
        • Adaptation to Climate Change
        • Nested Ecosystems
        • Photosynthesis
        • Symbiosis
    • Divisions
      • Back
      • Divisions
      • Biosphere Sciences & Engineering
        • Back
        • Biosphere Sciences & Engineering
        • About

          Contact Us

          Business Address
          5241 Broad Branch Rd. NW

          Washington , DC 20015
          United States place Map
          Call Us (202) 387-640
        • Research
        • Culture
      • Earth & Planets Laboratory
        • Back
        • Earth & Planets Laboratory
        • About

          Contact Us

          Business Address
          5241 Broad Branch Rd. NW

          Washington , DC 20015
          United States place Map
          Call Us (202) 387-640
        • Research
        • Culture
        • Campus
      • Observatories
        • Back
        • Observatories
        • About

          Contact Us

          Business Address
          5241 Broad Branch Rd. NW

          Washington , DC 20015
          United States place Map
          Call Us (202) 387-640
        • Research
        • Culture
        • Campus
    • Instrumentation
      • Back
      • Instrumentation
      • Our Telescopes
        • Back
        • Our Telescopes
        • Magellan Telescopes
        • Swope Telescope
        • du Pont Telescope
      • Observatories Machine Shop
      • EPL Research Facilities
      • EPL Machine Shop
      • Mass Spectrometry Facility
      • Advanced Imaging Facility
  • People
    • Back
    • People
      Observatory Staff

      Featured Staff Member

      Staff Member

      Staff Member

      Professional Title

      Learn More
      Observatory Staff

      Search For

    • Search All People
      • Back
      • Staff Scientists
      • Leadership
      • Biosphere Science & Engineering People
      • Earth & Planets Laboratory People
      • Observatories People
    Observatory Staff
    Dr. Michael Blanton
    Observatories Director and Crawford M. Greenewalt Chair

    Featured Staff Member

    Observatories Director Michael Blanton

    Dr. Michael Blanton

    Observatories Director and Crawford M. Greenewalt Chair

    Learn More
    Observatory Staff
    Dr. Michael Blanton
    Observatories Director and Crawford M. Greenewalt Chair

    Astronomer Michael R. Blanton joined the Carnegie Science Observatories as its 12th director in January 2026. In this role he oversees astronomical research in Pasadena and telescope operations at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

    Search For

    Search All Staff
  • Events
    • Back
    • Events
    • Search All Events
      • Back
      • Public Events
      • Biosphere Science & Engineering Events
      • Earth & Planets Laboratory Events
      • Observatories Events

    Upcoming Events

    Events

    Events

    Banner no Text Mission MAtchmaker
    Science Social

    Mission Matchmaker

    John Mulchaey, Andrew Steele, Michael Greklek-McKeon

    March 23

    7:00pm EDT

    Colloquium

    Dr. Anirudh Chiti (Stanford University)

    Signatures of the First Stars and Galaxies in the Local Group

    March 24

    11:00am PDT

    Lava exoplanet
    Seminar

    Catherine Manea (University of Utah)

    TBD

    March 27

    12:15pm PDT

  • News
    • Back
    • News
    • Search All News
      • Back
      • Biosphere Science & Engineering News
      • Earth & Planets Laboratory News
      • Observatories News
      • Carnegie Science News
    News

    Recent News

    News

    Latest

    • - Any -
    • Biosphere Sciences & Engineering
    • Carnegie Science
    • Earth & Planets Laboratory
    • Observatories
    expand_more
    Read all News
    Pulsing xenia with clownfish
    Breaking News
    January 29, 2026

    Carnegie Science Celebrates Second Annual Carnegie Science Day

    Stars in space
    Breaking News
    September 30, 2025

    Vote for Carnegie Science’s 2025 Holiday Card

    Artist's rendering of the Giant Magellan Telescope courtesy of Damien Jemison, Giant Magellan Telescope - GMTO Corporation
    Breaking News
    June 12, 2025

    NSF advances Giant Magellan Telescope to Final Design Phase

  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Search All
      • Back
      • Employee Resources
      • Scientific Resources
      • Postdoc Resources
      • Media Resources
      • Archival Resources
    • Quick Links
      • Back
      • Employee Intranet
      • Dayforce
      • Careers
      • Observing at LCO
      • Locations and Addresses
  • Donate
    • Back
    • Donate
      - ,

    • Make a Donation
      • Back
      • Support Scientific Research
      • The Impact of Your Gift
      • Carnegie Champions
      • Planned Giving
    Jo Ann Eder

    I feel passionately about the power of nonprofits to bolster healthy communities.

    - Jo Ann Eder , Astronomer and Alumna

    Header Text

    Postdoctoral alumna Jo Ann Eder is committed to making the world a better place by supporting organizations, like Carnegie, that create and foster STEM learning opportunities for all. 

    Learn more arrow_forward
  • Home

Abstract
Context. Dorado is a nearby, rich and clumpy galaxy group that extends for several degrees in the southern hemisphere. Although several studies have been dedicated to defining its members, their kinematics, and the hot and cold gas content, in particular HI, their present star formation activity remains unknown.Aims. For the first time, we map the H alpha distribution as a possible indicator of the star formation activity of Dorado members, a large fraction of which show interaction and merging signatures independently of their morphological type.Methods. With the 2.5 m du Pont and the 1m Swope telescopes, we obtained narrow-band calibrated images of 14 galaxies that form the backbone of the group, mapping H alpha+[N II] down to a few 10(-17) erg cm(-2) s(-1) arcsec(-2). We estimated the galaxy star formation rate from the H alpha fluxes and corrected for Galaxy foreground extinction and [N II] contamination.Results. We detected H alpha+[N II] emission in all galaxies. HII regions clearly emerge in late-type galaxies, while in early-type galaxies the H alpha+[N II] emission is dominated by [N II], especially in the central regions. However, HII complexes are revealed in four early-type galaxies. Even in the compact group SGC 0414-5559, in the projected centre of Dorado, HII regions are found both throughout the late-type galaxies and in the very outskirts of early-type members. Considering the Dorado group as a whole, we notice that the H alpha+[N II] equivalent width, a measure of the specific star formation, increases with morphological type from early- to late-type members, although it remains lower than that observed in similar surveys of spiral galaxies. The star formation rate of the spiral members is in the range of what is observed in similar galaxies surveys (James et al., 2004). However, in three spiral galaxies, NGC 1536, PGC 75125, and IC 2058, the star formation rate is well below the median for their morphological classes. Conversely, the star formation rate of some early-type members tends to be higher than the average derived from H alpha+[N II] surveys of this morphological family.Conclusions. We detected H alpha+[N II] in all the early-type galaxies observed and half of them show HII regions in well-shaped rings as well as in their outskirts. These findings suggest that early-type galaxies in this group are not dead galaxies: their star formation has not yet shut down. Mechanisms such as gas stripping and gas accretion through galaxy-galaxy interaction seem relevant in modifying star formation in this evolutionary phase of Dorado.
View Full Publication open_in_new
Abstract
Narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies are a peculiar sub-class of active galactic nuclei (AGNe). They have demonstrated that the presence of relativistic jets in an AGN is not strictly related to its radio-loudness, the black hole mass, or their host galaxy type. Here, we present a remarkable example of a radio-quiet NLS1, 6dFGS gJ035432.8-134008 (J0354-1340). In our Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array observations at 5.5 GHz, the source shows a bright core with a flat spectral index and extended emission corresponding to very elongated jets. These are the largest double-sided radio jets found to date in an NLS1, with a de-projected linear size of almost 250 kpc. We also analysed near-infrared and optical images obtained by the Magellan Baade and the European Southern Observatory New Technology Telescope. By means of photometric decomposition and colour maps, we determined that J0354-1340 is hosted by a spiral or disc-like galaxy. Fully evolved relativistic jets have traditionally been associated with high-mass elliptical galaxies hosting the most massive black holes. Instead, our results confirm that powerful jets can also be launched and sustained by less massive black holes in spiral galaxies, implying that the launching of the jets is governed by factors other than those previously believed to be at play.
View Full Publication open_in_new
Abstract
We present radial velocities for 14 stars on the California and Carnegie Planet Search target list that reveal new companions. One star, HD 167665, was fit with a definitive Keplerian orbit leading to a minimum mass for the companion of 50.3 M-Jup at a separation from its host of similar to 5.5 AU. Incomplete or limited phase coverage for the remaining 13 stars prevents us from assigning to them unique orbital parameters. Instead, we fit their radial velocities with Keplerian orbits across a grid of fixed values for M sin i and period P, and use the resulting chi(2)(v) surface to place constraints on M sin i, P, and semimajor axis a. This technique allowed us to restrict M sin i below the brown dwarf- stellar mass boundary for an additional four companions ( HD 150554, HD 8765, HD 72780, HD 74014). If the combined five companions are confirmed as brown dwarfs, these results would comprise the first major catch of such objects from our survey beyond similar to 3 AU.
View Full Publication open_in_new
Abstract
We study the structural evolution of massive galaxies by linking progenitors and descendants at a constant cumulative number density of n(c) = 1.4 x 10(-4) Mpc(-3) to z similar to 3. Structural parameters were measured by fitting Sersic profiles to high-resolution CANDELS HST WFC3 J(125) and H-160 imaging in the UKIDSS-UDS at 1 < z < 3 and ACS I-814 imaging in COSMOS at 0.25 < z < 1. At a given redshift, we selected the HST band that most closely samples a common rest-frame wavelength so as to minimize systematics from color gradients in galaxies. At fixed n(c), galaxies grow in stellar mass by a factor of similar to 3 from z similar to 3 to z similar to 0. The size evolution is complex: galaxies appear roughly constant in size from z similar to 3 to z similar to 2 and then grow rapidly to lower redshifts. The evolution in the surface mass density profiles indicates that most of the mass at r < 2 kpc was in place by z similar to 2, and that most of the new mass growth occurred at larger radii. This inside-out mass growth is therefore responsible for the larger sizes and higher Sersic indices of the descendants toward low redshift. At z < 2, the effective radius evolves with the stellar mass as r(e) proportional to M-2.0, consistent with scenarios that find dissipationless minor mergers to be a key driver of size evolution. The progenitors at z similar to 3 were likely star-forming disks with r(e) similar to 2 kpc, based on their low Sersic index of n similar to 1, low median axis ratio of b/a similar to 0.52, and typical location in the star-forming region of the U-V versus V-J diagram. By z similar to 1.5, many of these star-forming disks disappeared, giving rise to compact quiescent galaxies. Toward lower redshifts, these galaxies continued to assemble mass at larger radii and became the local ellipticals that dominate the high-mass end of the mass function at the present epoch.
View Full Publication open_in_new
Abstract
We follow the structural evolution of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) like the Milky Way by selecting progenitors to z similar to 1.3 based on the stellar mass growth inferred from the evolution of the star-forming sequence. We select our sample from the 3D-HST survey, which utilizes spectroscopy from the HST/WFC3 G141 near-IR grism and enables precise redshift measurements for our sample of SFGs. Structural properties are obtained from S ' ersic profile fits to CANDELS WFC3 imaging. The progenitors of z = 0 SFGs with stellar mass M = 10(10.5)M(circle dot) are typically half as massive at z similar to 1. This late-time stellar mass growth is consistent with recent studies that employ abundance matching techniques. The descendant SFGs at z similar to 0 have grown in half-light radius by a factor of similar to 1.4 since z similar to 1. The half-light radius grows with stellar mass as r(e) proportional to M-0.29. While most of the stellar mass is clearly assembling at large radii, the mass surface density profiles reveal ongoing mass growth also in the central regions where bulges and pseudobulges are common features in present day late-type galaxies. Some portion of this growth in the central regions is due to star formation as recent observations of H alpha maps for SFGs at z similar to 1 are found to be extended but centrally peaked. Connecting our lookback study with galactic archeology, we find the stellar mass surface density at R = 8 kpc to have increased by a factor of similar to 2 since z similar to 1, in good agreement with measurements derived for the solar neighborhood of the Milky Way.
View Full Publication open_in_new
Abstract
Spectroscopic + photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early-and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R-eff proportional to (1 + z)(-1.48), and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R-eff proportional to (1 + z)(-0.75). The large sample size and dynamic range in both galaxy mass and redshift, in combination with the high fidelity of our measurements due to the extensive use of spectroscopic data, not only fortify previous results but also enable us to probe beyond simple average galaxy size measurements. At all redshifts the slope of the size-mass relation is shallow, R-eff proportional to M-*(0.22) , for late-type galaxies with stellar mass >3 x 10(9) M-circle dot, and steep, R-eff proportional to M-*(0.75), for early-type galaxies with stellar mass >2 x 10(10) M-circle dot. The intrinsic scatter is less than or similar to 0.2 dex for all galaxy types and redshifts. For late-type galaxies, the logarithmic size distribution is not symmetric but is skewed toward small sizes: at all redshifts and masses, a tail of small late-type galaxies exists that overlaps in size with the early-type galaxy population. The number density of massive (similar to 10(11)M(circle dot)), compact (R-eff < 2 kpc) early-type galaxies increases from z = 3 to z 1.5-2 and then strongly decreases at later cosmic times.
View Full Publication open_in_new
Abstract
We investigate star formation rates (SFRs) of quiescent galaxies at high redshift (0.3 < z < 2.5) using 3D-HST WFC3 grism spectroscopy and Spitzer mid-infrared data. We select quiescent galaxies on the basis of the widely used UVJ color-color criteria. Spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting (rest-frame optical and near-IR) indicates very low SFRs for quiescent galaxies (sSFR similar to 10(-12) yr(-1)). However, SED fitting can miss star formation if it is hidden behind high dust obscuration and ionizing radiation is re-emitted in the mid-infrared. It is therefore fundamental to measure the dust-obscured SFRs with a mid-IR indicator. We stack the MIPS 24 mu m images of quiescent objects in five redshift bins centered on z = 0.5, 0.9, 1.2, 1.7, 2.2 and perform aperture photometry. Including direct 24 mu m detections, we find sSFR similar to 10(-11.9) x (1 + z)(4) yr(-1). These values are higher than those indicated by SED fitting, but at each redshift they are 20-40 times lower than those of typical star-forming galaxies. The true SFRs of quiescent galaxies might be even lower, as we show that the mid-IR fluxes can be due to processes unrelated to ongoing star formation, such as cirrus dust heated by old stellar populations and circumstellar dust. Our measurements show that star formation quenching is very efficient at every redshift. The measured SFR values are at z > 1.5 marginally consistent with the ones expected from gas recycling (assuming that mass loss from evolved stars refuels star formation) and well below that at lower redshifts.
View Full Publication open_in_new
Abstract
The Magellan Telescopes are a set of twin 6.5 meter ground based optical/near-IR telescopes operated by the Carnegie Institution for Science at the Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in Chile. The primary mirrors are f/1.25 paraboloids made of borosilicate glass and a honeycomb structure. The secondary mirror provides both f/11 and f/5 focal lengths with two Nasmyth, three auxiliary, and a Cassegrain port on the optical support structure (OSS).
View Full Publication open_in_new

Pagination

  • Previous page chevron_left
  • …
  • Page 379
  • Page 380
  • Page 381
  • Page 382
  • Current page 383
  • Page 384
  • Page 385
  • Page 386
  • Page 387
  • …
  • Next page chevron_right
Subscribe to

Get the latest

Subscribe to our newsletters.

Privacy Policy
Home
  • Instagram instagram
  • Twitter twitter
  • Youtube youtube
  • Facebook facebook

Science

  • Biosphere Sciences & Engineering
  • Earth & Planets Laboratory
  • Observatories
  • Our Research Areas
  • Our Blueprint For Discovery

Legal

  • Financial Statements
  • Conflict of Interest Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Careers

  • Working at Carnegie
  • Scientific and Technical Jobs
  • Administrative & Support Jobs
  • Postdoctoral Program
  • Carnegie Connect (For Employees)

Contact Us

  • Contact Administration
  • Media Contacts

Business Address

5241 Broad Branch Rd. NW

Washington, DC 20015

place Map

© Copyright Carnegie Science 2026