Galaxies form and evolve through close interaction with their surroundings. As a result, the heavy elements ('metals') that are synthesized in stars, are found both inside and outside galaxies.

Promotores: Prof.dr. J. Schaye, Prof.dr. S.D.M. White (MPA Garching)

Promotor: J. Schaye

Labbe

Galaxies in the local Universe fall into two main categories of spirals and ellipticals. In this Thesis, we explore the structural evolution of galaxies into this bimodal distribution.

Promotor: M. Franx, Co-Promotor: I.F. Labbé

Promotores: Prof.dr. M. Franx, Prof.dr. M. Kriek (Univ. of California at Berkeley)

The formation and evolution of galaxies is fundamentally driven by the formation of new stars out of cold gas.

Promotores: Prof.dr. J. Schaye & Prof.dr. C. Steidel (California Institute of Technology)

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Franx, Co-Promotor: Rychard Bouwens

Understanding how galaxies form, interact, and evolve comes largely from comparing theory predictions with observational data. Numerical simulations of galaxies provide the most accurate approach to testing the theory, as they follow the non-linear evolution of gas and dark matter in great detail and…

Within the field of astronomy, understanding how galaxies grow and evolve from the Big Bang to the present day is a challenging and complex question.

One of the key quests in astronomy is to study the growth and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. Radio observations provide a powerful means of studying the formation of stars and subsequent buildup of distant galaxies, in a way that is unbiased by the presence of dust.

Following the Big Bang, structure in the Universe started collapsing under the force of gravity. This resulted in the formation of the first stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

In astronomy, the interpration of observations and measurements plays a crucial role: we rely purely and fundamentally on the information that reaches us as observers. And 80% of all matter in the universe is undetectable directly.

Two teams of astronomers, including one from Leiden University, have discovered oxygen in the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. This groundbreaking discovery shows that galaxies could form much faster in the early universe than was previously thought.

Deep observations made with the MUSE spectrograph on ESO’s Very Large Telescope have uncovered vast cosmic reservoirs of atomic hydrogen surrounding distant galaxies. The exquisite sensitivity of MUSE allowed for direct observations of dim clouds of hydrogen glowing with Lyman-alpha emission in the…