The Local Universe offers a unique window into the process of hierarchical mass assembly across all scales. In particular, the Local Group provides an exceptional opportunity to study different types of galaxies in detail, for instance gas-rich, interacting galaxies and gas-poor, isolated systems.
Investigating the chemical composition of stars in galaxies with diverse star formation and...
The evolution of galaxies is driven by feedback processes occurring on small scales, galaxy-scale dynamical processes, and the interplay between galaxies, their dark matter haloes, and the intergalactic medium. Understanding the flows of matter and energy across these different scales is key to improving our understanding of galaxy evolution. Large surveys of galaxies provide sufficient...
The variety of galaxy types that we observe today originates from different physical mechanisms, each producing distinct features in the spatially resolved star formation history and stellar kinematics. We propose to use the IFS@WST to carry out a systematic, spatially resolved study of the galaxy population in the nearby (z~0.07) and intermediate-z (~0.3) Universe, targeting ~ 1000 systems in...
Ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) are extremely faint $(\mu_{0,g} \geq 24$ mag/arcsec²) and diffuse $(R_e \geq$ 1.5 kpc) systems whose nature is unknown. Literature is now plenty of imaging data on UDGs whereas spectroscopic follow-up of large samples of UDGs remains rare. The “Looking into the faintEst WIth MUSE” (LEWIS) project will make a decisive impact on the field since it will study for the...
The upcoming surveys of the SKA will completely change our view of the distribution of atomic neutral hydrogen (HI) in galaxies and their environment. Out to z~1, SKA will provide HI masses of half a million galaxies, spanning from gas-rich low-surface brightness sources to massive early type sources and Active Galactic Nuclei. Most of these sources will not have spectroscopic information,...
In the hierarchical mass assembly framework, the accretion history of the Milky Way (MW) is crucial to understand its evolution. Previous works have shown that the integrals of motion quantities (like energy and angular momentum) are not necessarily conserved when massive merger events are concerned, but rather they spread their stars throughout the dynamical spaces. Additionally, part of the...
