Galaxies: From Spiral to Elliptical
The Universe is home to an incredible variety of galaxies—vast and awe-inspiring collections of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. These galaxies come in all shapes and sizes: blue spirals like our own Milky Way, and red ellipticals that are often devoid of the gas and dust necessary for new star formation. But how did these different types of galaxies come to be? Margaret (Maggie) Verrico takes us on a journey through the evolution of galaxies, explaining how they formed in the early Universe and how they’ve evolved into the diverse population of galaxies we observe today.
Maggie Verrico is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she focuses on galaxy evolution and the relationship between galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centers. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2021 and is originally from Buffalo, New York. Maggie is particularly interested in the ways galaxies “shut down” their star formation and the transient events that occur around supermassive black holes, which provide valuable insights into a black hole’s “appetite” and growth..
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