The first generations of stars were born in galaxies that were only just forming and the universe was very young. The most massive of these stars emitted intense and hot ultraviolet light. This UV starlight was so strong and pervasive that it escaped from galaxies and bathed the entire universe — heating the vast space between galaxies.
This early universe, bathed in ultraviolet starlight, is the hostile environment within which a small galaxy starts to form. The dwarf galaxy gathers dark matter and gas together, working to coalesce the gas to create its own stars, but the gravity needed for star formation is now in competition with the starlight heating the galaxy from the outside-in, threatening to disrupt the galaxy’s growth and development. In this talk, McQuinn goes back in time to reconstruct the early history of small galaxies and explore the impact that starlight from massive stars has on the galaxy formation process using images obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
About Kristin McQuinn
Kristen McQuinn is the Mission Head for the Science Operations Center of NASA's next flagship mission: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope; she is also an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University. Prof. McQuinn's research focuses on how small galaxies -- galaxies more than a million times smaller than our own Milky Way galaxy -- form and survive in the often harsh conditions of the universe. She has regularly been awarded time for her research on the Hubble Space Telescope, the new James Webb Space Telescope, as well as other premier space telescopes such as Chandra, Spitzer, and GALEX. Prof. McQuinn has been internationally recognized for her research accomplishments, was the recent recipient of a Cottrell Scholar Award, and has been named a Kavli Frontier of Science Fellow by the US National Academy of Sciences. Prof. McQuinn has degrees in both engineering and astrophysics and, prior to pursuing a PhD in astronomy, she worked in business for nearly a decade.