Afternoon of Astrophysics: Galaxies from the dawn of the Universe to the present day

How did the first galaxies form, grow, and light up the cosmos? In these talks astronomers will explore how new telescopes are transforming our view of galaxies from the nearby Universe to the earliest times after the Big Bang. 

Facilities such as the MeerKAT radio telescope, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Euclid Satellite, and the James Webb Space Telescope are allowing us to observe vast numbers of galaxies across cosmic history. By combining light from across the electromagnetic spectrum scientists can build a fuller picture of how galaxies evolve, how they form stars, and how they are shaped by their surroundings. Radio observations reveal parts of galaxies hidden by cosmic dust, including regions where new stars are being born. They also show the powerful jets launched by supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies and how they can influence the growth of galaxies over billions of years. The near-infrared spectrograph of the the James Webb Space Telescope can study some of the most distant objects ever discovered, allowing astronomers to measure how rapidly young galaxies were forming stars when the Universe was only a fraction of its present age. These observations may also bring us closer to finding the first generations of stars. 

Together, these talks will show how modern astronomy is uncovering the origins of galaxies, stars, and cosmic structure.