Sandra Liss
Astronomy graduate student
Comparison of SDSS (left) and MMT (right) imaging of a TNT dwarf galaxy pair obtained in August 2014. Diffuse continuum emission present in the MMT data is not visible in the SDSS image. There also appears to be a faint stellar feature between the two galaxies in the MMT image.
Dwarf-Dwarf Interactions
Galaxy interactions are of fundamental importance to the evolution of massive galaxies -- they have been observed to impact morphology, star formation rates, and galaxy composition. Such interactions also occur frequently between dwarf galaxies, but this process is poorly understood and largely overlooked in comparison. Although the majority of mergers at all redshifts are expected to take place between low mass galaxies, until now there have not been comparable systematic studies of dwarf galaxy interactions.
The TiNy Titans (TNT) survey is a combined theoretical and multiwavelength observational campaign designed to determine the role that dwarf galaxy interactions play in the larger picture of galaxy evolution. I work with a sample of 104 nearby interacting dwarf galaxies selected from the spectroscopic portion of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Specifically, I am obtaining and analyzing deep optical imaging, both broadband and narrowband, in an effort to understand the ongoing star formation in these systems.