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Swara Ravindranath |
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Galaxy Morphologies have been studied quite extensively in the recent years, using the highest resolution images available from the deep surveys done with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). There is some consensus that the Hubble Sequence of galaxy morphologies seen in the present-day Universe is likely to have emerged around z=2-3. Interestingly, this also corresponds to the peak epoch of star formation and mass assembly. The class of massive, red galaxies that have compact sizes, and the clumpy star-forming galaxies with intense starbursts that are observed at z=2 do not have similar counterparts at low redshift. The observed transition in galaxy morphologies at z>2 is affected by various issues. At high redshifts, HST/ACS images probe the rest-frame UV light which only traces the star-forming regions, and may be severely affected by dust extinction. Surface-brightness dimming also becomes very significant at z>2, causing the observed morphologies to be biased by the distribution of the brightest regions in the galaxies. I will present some of the recent results on galaxy morphology at z=2 based on HST/ACS and NICMOS images, with a prelude to what may be learnt using rest-frame optical images from the upcoming HST/WFC3 deep surveys. |