ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Simon Driver

Modeling the total energy output of the nearby Universe - Simon Driver Colloquium

By measuring the galaxy luminosity function at a variety of wavelengths it is possible to build up a coarse mean spectrum of the energy output of the nearby Universe. Using redshifts from the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC) combined with imaging data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the UK Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) we have now reconstructed the coarse energy spectrum over the full optical/near-IR range. Correcting for dust attenuation reveals a relatively youthfull mean stellar age and a total stellar mass content higher than previous estimates. We will discuss how these results reconcile with the global star-formation history along with our plans to extend this work to determine the total energy output and stellar, dust, gas, baryonic, and dark matter masses for over 100k galaxies as part of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey.