The MALIGN Survey: Masses And Luminosities of Infrared Galaxies Nearby
Investigators:
Christopher S. Kochanek,
Michael A. Pahre,
Emilio E. Falco,
John P. Huchra
(CfA)
For several decades, astronomers have studied the distribution of galaxy
luminosities--known as the luminosity function--both in the local universe
and at cosmological distances.
Galaxy evolutionary effects...
The MALIGN survey was constructed to measure the galaxy velocity and mass
functions in order to provide a more direct constraint on models of galaxy
and structure formation.
Observationally, this entails the following steps for the entire 4000+ galaxy
sample:
- Selecting the sample at a wavelength that best approximates a
selection by galaxy mass, i.e., using the near-infrared K-band (2.2 micron).
- Measuring redshifts for galaxies not in present-day catalogs.
- Visual morphological classification of the galaxies based on digitized
sky survey images.
Then, for a small subsample of 500+ galaxies:
- Obtaining long-slit emission and absorption line spectra for each galaxy,
in order to measure the rotation curves and velocity dispersions, respectively,
as well as the line strengths.
- Measuring detailed surface brightness profiles, both at optical and
infrared wavelengths, in order to separate the disk and bulge light in each
galaxy.
- Measuring accurate optical and infrared colors of the galaxies in order
to estimate the age and metallicity of each galaxy component.
Finally, we construct the following from the main and subsamples:
- The near-infrared K-band luminosity function of galaxies, both as a whole
and split by morphological type.
- The velocity and mass function of galaxies in the local universe.
Click here
for a bibliography of our work to date.
