Studying distant galaxies: A Handbook of Methods and Analyses

TL;DR

This handbook provides comprehensive methods and practical guidelines for observing, analyzing, and understanding the formation and evolution of distant galaxies, aiding researchers in extragalactic astronomy.

Contribution

It compiles and explains a wide range of techniques and practical examples for studying distant galaxies, serving as a valuable resource for researchers and students.

Findings

Summarizes key observational and analytical techniques.

Provides practical guidelines with examples.

Facilitates establishing relations between galaxy properties.

Abstract

Distant galaxies encapsulate the various stages of galaxy evolution and formation from over 95% of the development of the universe. As early as twenty-five years ago, little was known about them, however since the first systematic survey was completed in the 1990s, increasing amounts of resources have been devoted to their discovery and research. This book summarises for the first time the numerous techniques used for observing, analysing, and understanding the evolution and formation of these distant galaxies. In this rapidly expanding research field, this text is an every-day companion handbook for graduate students and active researchers. It provides guidelines in sample selection, imaging, integrated spectroscopy and 3D spectroscopy, which help to avoid the numerous pitfalls of observational and analysis techniques in use in extragalactic astronomy. It also paves the way for establishing relations between fundamental properties of distant galaxies. At each step, the reader is assisted with numerous practical examples and ready-to-use methodology to help understand and analyse research.