Pulling Back the Dusty Curtain on Luminous Infrared Galaxies

Luminous Infrared Galaxies are some of the brightest and most active galaxies in the Universe. The enormous amounts of infrared light given off by these systems is driven by huge bouts of star formation and by gas accretion onto supermassive black holes. In the nearby Universe, the process driving the intense physical conditions is often a merger of two massive spiral galaxies, ultimately resulting in a final coalesced system which has exhausted the fuel needed to sustain its activity. Large surveys taken in Radio, X-Ray, UV, visible and infrared light are being used to study these systems and investigate how they relate to the history of star formation and galaxy evolution throughout cosmic time. I will discuss how these luminous galaxies light up and present new observations by JWST revealing never before seen details in their dusty cores.

Speaker: Dr. Jeff Rich, Carnegie Observatories

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