Abstract
The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey (CGS) is a long-term program to investigate the photometric and spectroscopic properties of a statistically complete sample of 605 bright, southern galaxies using the facilities at Las Campanas Observatory. The major scientific goals are (1) to revise the existing qualitative system of morphological classification (based on Hubble) with a more rigorous, quantitative system, (2) to obtain a complete census of nuclear activity in nearby southern galaxies, with the aim of improving our knowledge of the faintest end of the AGN luminosity function and to delineate the demography of nuclear black holes, (3) to study the stellar population within and among galaxies, and (4) to quantify the internal gaseous and stellar kinematics to constrain models of galaxy formation, especially in systems with non-classical bulges. I will report on initial results of this survey, emphasizing two initial results: (a) the incidence of lopsidedness in galaxy disks and inferences we can draw on the nature of cosmological accretion and (b) the multicomponent structure of nearby elliptical and clues we obtain regarding the formation history of the most massive galaxies in the Universe.
Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the seminar.