The Universe of Galaxies, James Webb Space Telescope, and STEAM Research Opportunities for Young People

My Science on Tap presentation will touch upon highlights from my group's research on galaxies. We tend to focus on nearby spiral galaxies like the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies and the smaller galaxies that orbit around these two large galaxies. I will also present results from our ongoing research on the outer regions of the galaxy we live in, our Milky Way galaxy. The properties of the resolved populations of stars that make up these galaxies tell us a lot about the formation and complex evolutionary history of these galaxies. For example, the motion of stars tells us about the dark matter content of galaxies and their canni- balism history. My talk will include some of the latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and ground based telescopes. Finally, I will describes three outreach programs under the Creating Equity in STEAM (CrEST) umbrella that engage young aspir- ing students: (1) Shadow the Scientists (StS); (2) Python and Research (PyaR); and (3) Science Internship Program (SIP).

Speaker: Puragra GuhaThakurta, UC Santa Cruz