The aim of this project is to study the origins and evolution of distant galaxies. Because the speed of light is finite, we see stars (and therefore galaxies) in the sky as they were when their light was emitted. Hence, when looking at very distant galaxies, we actually see what they used to look like billions of years ago. A specific area of the sky, called the COSMOS field, has been surveyed with 16 narrow-band filters to detect Lyman-α photons emitted by hydrogen from distant galaxies, which allows us to “time travel” to specific epochs of the Universe. Therefore, we can slice the Universe into different cosmic times. This is how SC4K, a sample of almost 4000 galaxies discovered in the COSMOS field by researchers from the XGAL group, was obtained. Our internship will focus on obtaining a sample similar to the original SC4K, but in another area of the sky called GOODS-S.
Find our blogs with our progress here.
XGAL: Time travelling through the Universe 