Calendar of Events
Events Calendar
From the SAGA Survey to a Future Census of Nearby Low-mass Galaxies
Speaker: Yao-Yuan Mao, University of Utah
Abstract: Low-mass galaxies refer to a wide range of galaxies that contain stellar masses less than a billion solar masses, in contrast to the Milky Way, which has about 50 billion solar masses in stellar mass. Low-mass galaxies are the most common type of galaxy in the Universe, but these small galaxies are difficult to detect due to their low stellar content. I will first discuss our recent achievements in the search for nearby low-mass galaxies, highlighting the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey. The SAGA Survey characterizes low-mass galaxies orbiting Milky Way-mass galaxies, and these satellite galaxies provide new insights into structure formation. Then, I will discuss how upcoming astronomical surveys, including the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), can enable us to detect and study a large population of low-mass galaxies that were previously undetectable or unidentifiable. Our current work on precursor surveys has shown promising results, paving the way to carry out a census of nearby low-mass galaxies. This census will enable exciting studies on topics such as low-mass galaxy lensing and environment-dependent galaxy evolution, promising to deliver new understandings of galaxy formation, dark matter, and the cosmos at large.