Answering Cosmological Questions with Low-mass Galaxies
- Event Type
- Seminar/Symposium
- Sponsor
- Department of Astronomy
- Location
- 134 Astronomy Building
- Virtual
- Join online
- Date
- Dec 2, 2025 3:45 - 4:45 pm
- Speaker
- Professor Yao-Yuan Mao
- Contact
- Daniel Franco
- danielf9@illinois.edu
- Phone
- 217-300-6769
- Views
- 7
- Originating Calendar
- Astronomy Colloquium Speaker Calendar
Low-mass galaxies refer to a wide range of galaxies that contain stellar masses less than a billion solar masses. As the most common galaxy type in the Universe, low-mass galaxies offer valuable insights into the nature of dark matter and the processes of galaxy formation. However, identifying these small systems is challenging due to their low stellar content. I will first discuss our recent achievements in the search for nearby low-mass galaxies, highlighting the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey, which characterizes low-mass galaxies orbiting Milky Way-mass hosts. I will also present our recent discoveries of some of the lowest-mass galaxies located beyond the Milky Way’s dark matter halo. Finally, I will discuss how upcoming astronomical surveys, including the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), will enable us to detect and study a large, previously unidentifiable population of low-mass galaxies. Our current work on precursor surveys is paving the way to carry out a comprehensive census of nearby low-mass galaxies. This census will enable exciting new studies on topics such as low-mass galaxy lensing and environment-dependent galaxy evolution, promising to deliver new understandings of galaxy formation, dark matter, and the cosmos at large.