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Black Hole

Lensing of space time around a black hole. At Oxford we study black holes observationally and theoretically on all size and time scales - it is some of our core work.

Credit: ALAIN RIAZUELO, IAP/UPMC/CNRS. CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE IMAGES.

Dr Chiara Spiniello

Ernest Rutherford Fellow

Research theme

  • Astronomy and astrophysics

Sub department

  • Astrophysics

Research groups

  • Galaxy formation and evolution
  • Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys
  • Rubin-LSST
chiara.spiniello@physics.ox.ac.uk
Telephone: 0865 273309
Denys Wilkinson Building, room 562
Chiara's Website
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  • Publications
The INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics

an ESO Observational Large Program (ID: 1104.B-0370, PI: C. Spiniello) with the X-Shooter spectrograph at the ESO Very Large Telescope targeting "Relic Galaxies", the ancient fossil of the early Universe

INSPIRE

INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Populations In RElics – IX. KiDS J0842 + 0059: the first fully confirmed relic beyond the local Universe

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 540:3 (2025) 2555-2565

Authors:

C Tortora, G Tozzi, G Agapito, F La Barbera, C Spiniello, R Li, G Carlà, G D’Ago, E Ghose, F Mannucci, NR Napolitano, E Pinna, M Arnaboldi, D Bevacqua, A Ferré-Mateu, A Gallazzi, J Hartke, LK Hunt, M Maksymowicz-Maciata, C Pulsoni, P Saracco, D Scognamiglio, M Spavone

Abstract:

Relics are massive, compact and quiescent galaxies that assembled the majority of their stars in the early Universe and lived untouched until today, completely missing any subsequent size growth caused by mergers and interactions. They provide the unique opportunity to put constraints on the first phase of mass assembly in the Universe with the ease of being nearby. While only a few relics have been found in the local Universe, the INSPIRE project has confirmed 38 relics at higher redshifts (), fully characterizing their integrated kinematics and stellar populations. However, given the very small sizes of these objects and the limitations imposed by the atmosphere, structural parameters inferred from ground-based optical imaging are possibly affected by systematic effects that are difficult to quantify. In this paper, we present the first high-resolution image obtained with Adaptive Optics Ks-band observations on SOUL-LUCI@LBT of one of the most extreme INSPIRE relics, KiDS J0842 + 0059 at . We confirm the discy morphology of this galaxy (axis ratio of 0.24) and its compact nature (circularized effective radius of kpc) by modelling its 2D surface brightness profile with a point-spread function-convolved Sérsic model. We demonstrate that the surface mass density profile of KiDS J0842 + 0059 closely resembles that of the most extreme local relic, NGC 1277, as well as of high-redshift red nuggets. We unambiguously conclude that this object is a remnant of a high-redshift compact and massive galaxy, which assembled all of its mass at , and completely missed the merger phase of the galaxy evolution at high redshift.
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E-INSPIRE - I. Bridging the gap with the local Universe: Stellar population of a statistical sample of ultra-compact massive galaxies at z < 0.3

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) (2025) staf516

Authors:

John Mills, Chiara Spiniello, Alexey Sergeyev, Crescenzo Tortora, Vladyslav Khramtsov, Giuseppe D’Ago, Michalina Maksymowicz-Maciata, João PV Benedetti, Anna Ferré-Mateu, Michele Cappellari, Roger Davies, Johanna Hartke, Charles Rosen
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INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics VIII. Emission lines and UV colours in ultra-compact massive galaxies

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) (2025) staf514

Authors:

Chiara Spiniello, Mario Radovich, Anna Ferré-Mateu, Roberto De Propris, Magda Arnaboldi, Francesco La Barbera, Johanna Hartke, Giuseppe D’Ago, Crescenzo Tortora, Davide Bevacqua, Michalina Maksymowicz-Maciata, John Mills, Nicola R Napolitano, Claudia Pulsoni, Paolo Saracco, Diana Scognamiglio
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Looking into the faintEst WIth MUSE (LEWIS): Exploring the nature of ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Hydra I cluster

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 695 (2025) a91

Authors:

J Hartke, E Iodice, M Gullieuszik, M Mirabile, C Buttitta, G Doll, G D’Ago, CC de la Casa, KM Hess, R Kotulla, B Poggianti, M Arnaboldi, M Cantiello, EM Corsini, J Falcón-Barroso, DA Forbes, M Hilker, S Mieske, M Rejkuba, M Spavone, C Spiniello
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Looking into the faintEst WIth MUSE (LEWIS): Exploring the nature of ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Hydra-I cluster

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 694 (2025) a276

Authors:

Chiara Buttitta, Enrichetta Iodice, Goran Doll, Johanna Hartke, Michael Hilker, Duncan A Forbes, Enrico M Corsini, Luca Rossi, Magda Arnaboldi, Michele Cantiello, Giuseppe D’Ago, Jesus Falcón-Barroso, Marco Gullieuszik, Antonio La Marca, Steffen Mieske, Marco Mirabile, Maurizio Paolillo, Marina Rejkuba, Marilena Spavone, Chiara Spiniello, Marc Sarzi
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