Research Seminars @ Illinois

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Tailored for undergraduate researchers, this calendar is a curated list of research seminars at the University of Illinois. Explore the diverse world of research and expand your knowledge through engaging sessions designed to inspire and enlighten.

To have your events added or removed from this calendar, please contact OUR at ugresearch@illinois.edu

SAGA Satellites

Answering Cosmological Questions with Low-mass Galaxies

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Department of Astronomy
Location
134 Astronomy Building
Virtual
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Date
Dec 2, 2025   3:45 - 4:45 pm  
Speaker
Professor Yao-Yuan Mao
Contact
Daniel Franco
E-Mail
danielf9@illinois.edu
Phone
217-300-6769
Views
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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.

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