[78.04] Morphologies of Galaxies with Old Stellar Populations at High Redshifts

AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 78 Seeing the Universe in a New (Sodium) Light: Early Science Results from Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics
Poster, Tuesday, 9:20am-6:30pm, January 10, 2006, Exhibit Hall

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[78.04] Morphologies of Galaxies with Old Stellar Populations at High Redshifts

A. Stockton, E. McGrath (IfA, Univ. of Hawaii), G. Canalizo (Univ. Calif. at Riverside)

We have been engaged in a program to identify luminous galaxies with old stellar populations in radio-source fields at high redshifts. The specific redshift ranges are chosen to ensure the best discrimination between galaxies that comprise old stellar populations and heavily reddened starburst galaxies. The former represent the earliest examples of massive galaxy formation in the universe, and their morphologies can constrain formation scenarios.

We have obtained LGS AO imaging with the Keck II telescope of ``old galaxy'' candidates in radio-source fields at z~1.5, 2.5, and 3.8. The morphologies are diverse. Several seem to be dominated by massive disks of old stars, and none are clearly dominated by recognizable spheroids.

This research has been partially supported by NSF grant AST03-07335.

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