SPS Seminar - Galaxies, Supermassive Black Holes, and Citizen Science

When:  Thursday 30 September at 14.00

Where:  Microsoft Teams - Online

Speaker:  Brooke Simmons (Lancaster University)

Hosted by: Hugh Dickinson

Abstract:

Galaxy growth and evolution may be broadly categorised as either driven by galaxy-galaxy collisions/mergers, or merger-free. Merger-free processes are crucial to galaxy evolution, yet many fundamental open questions remain: how does galaxy star formation halt without a disruptive merger? How do central “supermassive” black holes grow in galaxies without mergers? How do these questions impact each other? This talk will review the field of merger-free galaxy and black hole evolution from 0 < z < 3 and discuss the relative importance of both mergers and completely calm, "secular" evolution on galaxy and black hole growth. New evidence from recent cosmological simulations suggests merger-free process contribute significantly to both the overall growth of supermassive black holes and their co-evolution with their host galaxies, and a new Hubble Space Telescope survey is designed to answer these questions about merger-free evolution, in preparation for the next generation of telescopes and surveys. These results are made possible by the contributions of hundreds of thousands of members of the public in Galaxy Zoo; this talk will discuss the future of these (and other) citizen science endeavours.

Bio:

Dr Brooke Simmons is an Astrophysicist who studies black holes and galaxies, and she is deeply committed to both facilitating and carrying out citizen science. She created the data science arm of the Zooniverse, which helps other projects do the best research possible from their crowdsourced data. She also leads the humanitarian arm of the Zooniverse, which works with rescue and response organizations to improve aid efforts following natural disasters. After earning her PhD in Astronomy from Yale, she was the Henry Skynner Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, then an Einstein Fellow at UC San Diego, and is now a Reader and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at Lancaster University.