Major
Physics
Faculty Mentor
Mark Giroux
Abstract
In 2021 the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) started a five-year journey to study the nature of dark energy by creating a detailed three-dimensional map of the Universe. To this end the DESI team will measure the spectra of over 50 million galaxies and quasars covering an area of almost a third of the night sky. In this research we use the spectra of the over 18.7 million objects released in DESI’s Data Release 1 to explore galactic evolution. Using the data from DESI's Data Release 1 we will look for galaxies with nearby Mg-II gas clouds and investigate their physical properties. We search for correlations between Mg-II absorption systems and its host galaxy, and construct a main sequence of the host galaxies to look for star formation activity. The results of this research will address current ideas of how galaxies evolve.
Document Type
Culminating Research Project
Copyright
Copyright by the author.
Recommended Citation
Luttrell, Jace, "Mg-II Gas Clouds and Galactic Evolution" (2026). McNair Culminating Research Projects. Paper 3. https://dc.etsu.edu/mcnair-culminating-projects/3
