Astronomy Tea Talk

  Understanding the evolution of galaxies from starforming blue cloud objects into quiescent red sequence galaxies has been revolutionized by observations taken with the Herschel Space Observatory, ALMA, and CARMA, allowing astronomers to probe both the cold dust and cold ISM in a large set of galaxies, with unprecedented sensitivity. Observations of galaxies in molecular gas, cold dust and the cool ISM (such as the [C II] line) have given us an unprecedented view of the transition galaxies  undergo to go from the blue starforming cloud to the red sequence. Specifically, I will discuss the role a compact group environment plays in this transition, as well as discuss the unusual case of NGC1266, a local S0 galaxy that is expelling its interstellar medium at a rate of 50 Msuns/yr, over 100x the star formation rate. These example systems have the potential to provide local laboratories for understanding mechanisms that transition galaxies at higher redshift, and put the roles of AGNs and mild interactions into the larger context of galaxy evolution.