How Do Bars Affect the Evolution of Disc Galaxies?
Bars in disc galaxies help stabilize their evolution by reducing their dependence on environmental factors. Unbarred galaxies show strong environmental effects on star formation, color, and metallicity, while barred galaxies exhibit weaker variations. Bars likely regulate internal processes, such as gas movement and star formation, making them crucial in galaxy evolution. This study underscores the importance of bars in shaping galactic properties, using data from the MaNGA survey.
How Galaxy Collisions Shape the Universe
Researchers led by Mauro D’Onofrio’ explored how dry mergers—galaxy collisions without new star formation—shape galaxy properties like size, brightness, and mass. Using observational data, advanced simulations, and a simplified model, they found that mergers drive the evolution of galaxy scaling relations over time, especially for massive systems. This study underscores the critical role of mergers in the universe’s structure and evolution.