Note special date (Tuesday, April 19) due to the April 18 Patriots Day Holiday

Abstract:
Understanding the distribution of gas in galaxies and its interaction with the CGM is crucial in order to complete the picture of galaxy evolution. At all redshifts, absorption features seen in QSO spectra serve as a unique probe of the gaseous content of foreground galaxies and the CGM, extending out to ~200 kpc. Studies show that star formation history is intimately related to the co-evolution of galaxies and the CGM. In order to study the environments traced by absorption systems and the role of inflows and outflows, it is critical to measure the emission properties of host galaxies and their halos. However, the success rate for detecting host galaxies is still incredibly low (in some cases, less than 30%), particularly for the highest column density systems known as Damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs). In recent years, great strides have been made towards overcoming the deficit of confirmed host galaxies compared to the number of observed absorption systems, but it remains unclear how DLAs are related to morphology and inferred characteristics of galaxies. SDSS provides the wide coverage at low redshift necessary to probe configurations of galaxies and QSOs in imaging, which has allowed us to compile a sample of galaxies on top of QSOs (GOTOQs). New data from HST/COS of QSOs probing the star forming disks of z<0.15 galaxies from the SDSS and preliminary results will be presented.

Host: Monica Turner